Second Chance
by 42angel
Summary: Post Movie. Jake is offered a chance to change a mistake from his past and it is up to Will to save him, if he can.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters that appeared in the movie, only the ones I made up for the story.**

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Will had no idea where he was. All he knew was that he shouldn't be there. He took a few seconds to glance around and discovered that he was high above the ground standing on a tree branch.

'Oh God,' he thought, 'what now?' Suddenly the tree came to life and he was whisked through the air. He heard a cry from above and turned to see Angelika caught in the branches above him.

"Hold on, I'm coming," he began to climb up towards her. That seemed to anger the tree and it swung the branches more violently, trying to shake him from off and send him crashing to the ground below. Eventually he managed the reach Angelika.

"Don't worry, I'm here now to rescue you." Angelika gave him a "and who is going to rescue you?" look, but allowed him to take hold of her anyway.

He glanced at the ground and realised that the tree had taken them even higher. Now he had the work out how they were going to get down. Where was Jake when he needed him? He finally spotted his brother at the base of the tree; he seemed to be attacking it with Will's sword.

"If I get out to this alive I'm going to have a word with him about how he's using my sword – it was expensive." Will commented, as he watched his brother's antics below.

Then the tree finally responded to Jake's actions and they were falling towards the centre of the tree that had opened up, like huge mouth waiting to swallow them.

"Jake!" he screamed.

Will woke with a start and stared at the ceiling above him. As his breathing calmed he began to take stock of his surroundings. He was laid in his bed in Marbarden and the tree has just been a dream! That realisation was quickly followed by others; namely that he had a pounding head and a mouth that felt like a dessert – he was never going to let Gregor give him any of his "special" home brewed ale again! He slowly turned over and faced the window, the sun was up and the light was shining in through the cracks in the shutters. The shutters were closed, he didn't remember doing that, but then, he didn't remember much about last night and it was probably Jake that had done it anyway. Will glanced towards his brother's bed and noticed that it was empty, he slowly gather his wits and rose from the bed.

"Jake…Jake, where are you?"

The sound of his own voice echoed through is head, and he fell back onto the bed again. Okay, he thought, less noise and more action, and he slowly rose again from the bed and went in search of his brother, food and a drink (but not necessarily in that order). He entered the kitchen and found the table laid out for breakfast

"Who needs a wife when I have Jake?" he said with a smile.

"Good morning, Herr Grimm. How are you feeling?"

Will turned to face the voice, to discover a woman that he didn't know standing in the kitchen. At least he thought he didn't know her, but as he stared at her pieces of the previous night began to return to him.

"Mercurio thought that you might be in need of some refreshment this morning," said the women and now Will remembered her as the matronly women who had offered the kill a pig for Cavaldi.

"And how is Cavaldi this morning?" ask Will, with a grin.

"Oh…much the same as you, I would guess."

"Well, thank him for his kind thoughts, and you for the food. Have you seen my brother this morning?"

"No sir, there was only you in house when I came. The last time I saw you brother was at the party last night."

Marbaden had thrown the biggest party of its life the previous night to celebrate the safe return of Angelika and the girls and the defeat of the Queen. Will had entered into the spirit of it wholeheartedly and danced with every woman in the village and with Angelika as often as he could. Even Jake (who REALLY couldn't hold his ale) had got drunk and started telling stories to anyone who would listen and, as the villagers listened to Jake's tales, Will was reminded just how good they were and how Jake could hold an audience in the palm of his hand as he told them. Jake had really come alive last night, all his inhibitions seemed to have vanished. He was more outgoing and sociable than Will had seen him in years – he had even danced with Angelika. In fact, the last time Will had seen Jake he was speaking to Angelika. Could he, thought Will with a wide grin forming on his face, could his little brother had ended up last night where he thought he had. That would be the ultimate reversal for Jake who usually ran when a woman even glanced his way.

"Well if that's will be all sir, I'll be on my way."

"Yes…and thank you again for the food. By the way my name is Will, not Herr Grimm."

"Then I will see you later, Will."

The woman smiled and left the house. Will sat down to breakfast, in the hope that this would improve his head.

When he had finished Will cleared the table and set out the find his brother. Will whistled softly to himself as he crossed the village to Angelika's house. The food, sun and fresh air were beginning to clear his head. As he passed one the houses the door creaked open.

"Good morning 'err Grimmy." said and familiar voice.

"Good morning Signor Cavaldi and how did you sleep last night?" enquired Will.

"I slept very well…and 'ow is Jacob this morning?"

"I don't actually know, but I'm on my way to find out. I can't seem to find him and from what I remember that last person he was seen with was Angelika. I thought I might go and ask her if she knows of his whereabouts."

"Do you require any assistance in this matter?"

"I suppose that it might be useful to have some help, if you are not too busy."

"Oh I am never to busy for true love."

"That's an unusual sentiment for a torturer?"

"I am an unusual torturer."

By now both men were smiling as the approached Angelika's house.

"So you think that's it true love between Jake and Angelika then?"

"Only true love could 'ave broken that spell, anything less would 'ave ended in death."

"Jake kissed Angelika knowing that if he was wrong then she and all the girls would die?"

"And probably Jake was well. But if 'e 'adn't then they would all 'ave slept forever and there would 'ave been no way to bring you back either."

Will stopped and looked at Calvaldi. He hadn't had a chance to speak to Jake about what had happened yet and this had come as a surprise to him. He had always thought that Jake didn't possess that kind of courage. Jake's had always been the realm of theory and fantasy, Will's had been one of fact and action. He had assumed that Jake had just come up with the right spell, not that he had risked his life to see it through.

Will didn't remember much that happened in the tower after he had released Jake's wrist and felt the knife slide into his chest. He remembered the look of total despair on his brother's face and then his mind was filled with the Queen's voice and he knew that everything would be all right, all his problems would be solved if he just did as she told him, if he served her. The next thing he remembered was waking the hear children's voices and feeling his brother coming close to him as if he was about the kiss him, which wasn't what he wanted – especially as there were more feminine kisses to be had close by - and he had said so.

"You and Jake 'aven't talked about what 'appened?"

"No, we never really had the chance. He didn't want to talk in front of the children on the way back from the forest and after we got back it was just one big party until we fell asleep. Do you know what happened?"

"Only the bit I saw. Jake is the only one that knows all that went on and I think we should wait until 'e is ready before we speak of it."

"Then I guess we had better go and wake him and see if he is ready to talk."

They arrived at Angelika's house in silence and Will banged at door.

"Fraulein Krauss, you don't have my brother in there with you, do you?! And, if so, what are your intensions towards him?"

They waited a few minutes and Angelika appeared at the door, she did not look please to see either of the two men.

"Will! What do you want, my sisters are sleeping, and I don't want them disturbed. What were you saying about Jake?"

"Jake wasn't in his bed when I woke up this morning and seeing as you were the last person to be seen with him last night I was wondering if you knew where he might be?"

"You mean…did he spend the night here with me last night?"

"No…I wouldn't begin to presume. I thought he might have said something to you about his plans for today, you did spend a lot of last night talking to him."

"No his isn't here. We parted at the door to the house you are using – but I will admit to a kiss before I left," she said with a smile. "He's probably in the village somewhere, did you check to see if he left you a note?"

"No, I didn't. Through a note would be very Jake like, wouldn't it?"

"Look, lets go and check your house and around the village. I don't think that Jake will have gone far. He had a lot to drink last night and, to be perfectly honest, wasn't that steady on his feet."

They went and checked the house and found no note, they also found that Jake's bed was not only empty, but looked like it hadn't been slept in at all. Will began to be concerned about where his brother may be. As it was now edging towards mid morning and the rest of the village was now awake, Will went to see Gregor and explained the situation to him. A search of the village was organised, but to no avail.

"Will has the Queen done something to Jake?" asked Sasha.

"No sweetheart, No…nothing like that. Jake just lives in his own world and sometimes does things without realising that they might cause concern to others."

"Don't be mad at him, please."

"I won't be. I just want to know where his is."

Will's concern for Jake had now grown to full blow fear. Despite what he had said to Sasha he was thinking along similar lines himself. The thought of his otherworldly, magic believing brother being alone in that forest, for that was the only place left that he could be, was turning his heart to ice. Will had seen Jake use the magic axe to control the trees, but now that the Queen was gone had the magic gone with her or just been left with no control? Jake had said that magic could be in places as well as people.

Will had stood staring at the forest as these thoughts ran through his head surrounded by Angelika, Cavaldi and rest of the villagers. Suddenly Will pivoted on his heels and headed towards that stables.

"Where are you going?" asked Angelika

"Into the forest to find Jake."

"I'm coming with you."

"You don't have to, he's my brother!"

"He saved my life, as well. And the thought of anything happening to him..."

"Nothing has happened to him! He has just gone into the forest following some crazy scheme that seems perfectly logical to him and when I find him..."

"You'll do what?"

"I don't know, scream at him, hug him... I just need to find him and know he's all right."

Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival Cavaldi and Gregor.

"I thought you might want some company on your trip into the forest," Cavaldi said.

"You actually want to go back into that forest?" asked Will.

"No, but if the caro storyboy is in trouble then I would like to 'elp."

"Jake is NOT in any trouble. He has just gone for a walk in the forest and I am going to explain to him exactly why that was not a good idea!"

"Gregor?" Angelika asked, "can you look after Lily and Rose and try to keep what has happened from the rest of the children, I don't want them upset unnecessarily."

"Of course," replied Gregor.

Will, Angelika and Cavaldi then rode off into the forest again, watched by the villagers of Marbarden.


	2. Chapter 2

2

Jacob Grimm was exhausted. He hadn't slept in over two days and the sun that was beating down on his back as he worked was making him feel drowsy. But he knew that he had to continue. He had to "tidy up" the clearing before the French arrived. It had suddenly occurred to him after he had said good night to Angelika that there were things left in the clearing that would condemn Will when the French came. After all some of the troops must have escaped after the Queen put out the fire and the stories they would be telling!! He had gone back to the house, closed the shutters so that when Will returned, most likely more than a little drunk, he wouldn't immediately see that Jake wasn't there, and had then gone into the forest. Jake wasn't afraid, he knew that he should be, but he wasn't. He wasn't sure if it was the drink or that now that the Queen was gone there was no evil force behind the magic in the forest. It had obeyed him before so he could see no reason why it wouldn't do so again.

The full moon provided adequate light to work by and he quickly found the body of the valet, which he dragged further into the rubble of the tower and then covered in rocks and branches. Now he had to find Delatombe. He started to search around base of the tower near where the remains of the catapult were – he knew that the body should be somewhere near there. He turned a corner and stopped dead. He was looking at the place where Will's body had been before the spell had been broken. Jake could still see him lying there, lifeless, with the Queen's dagger in his chest. He could still feel the total despair and hopelessness that had engulfed him as he looked at Will; he had killed both his siblings, what kind of a monster did that make him? Jake shuddered at that thought. Then Cavaldi had remembered the story and brought a glimmer of hope back to him.

"I'm so sorry for what I did to you, Will," he said softly.

He turned from the place, trying to block out the images in his head, and his boot caught on something in the grass and sent it rolling in a circle. Jake bent down and picked it up, it was the dagger. Jake turned it over in his hand, the moonlight revealing the face design on the "hilt" and as he did this a few dried flakes fell from the blade on his hands. Jake gasped as he realised that this was dried blood, Will's dried blood, and he nearly dropped the dagger. Then the moonlight glinted off something else in the grass and Jake again bent down picked it up, it was a fragment of the Queen's mirror, this time Jake did drop it. As it fell the mirror seemed to reflect back an eye, but he couldn't be sure.

Jake turned and was about the go back to his search when a thought struck him. What if Will came across them? What would they do to him; he had been under the Queen's spell after all. Would they cause a relapse in Will - that he couldn't allow. But, if he kept them, he could keep them away for Will and keep him safe. If he knew where they were then they couldn't hurt Will, they couldn't hurt anyone again! Jake put down the dagger and felt around inside his bag. He withdrew his writing materials wrapped in a piece of cloth. He undid the bundle and used the cloth to wrap up the dagger and mirror fragment and placed them in his bag, alongside his book, and then returned his writing materials. He would find a better place to put them when he got back to Marbarden.

He moved to go back to back to his search when something else caught his eye, at first it seemed just a bundle of rags, but then he realised what it was. It was Angelika's father, killed when he and Will fell from the tower's window. Jake had no idea how he was going to tell Angelika what had happened. He loved her, but how could he tell her that his brother had killed her father? How could he possibly marry her and keep Will in his life? He couldn't. So he would walk away and she would find someone better to love.

Jake knew that he couldn't just leave him there; he had to give him a proper burial. He had to do that for Angelika. So again he dragged the body, this time away from the tower and then began to gather and pile rocks the body. This took much longer than he had anticipated and by the time he had finished the sun had risen. As he finished his task Jake realised that the last two days were catching up with him. He was suddenly so tired. He was beginning to get a headache from the drink the night before, but he had still to find Deltombe and get back before anyone realised that he wasn't there. Jake headed back to the tower to continue his search, but he was feeling very drowsy and was having trouble keeping his eyes open. He knew he had to rest and slowly sank to floor – he would give himself a few minutes and then go back to his search.

The trees, that had been silent and unmoving whilst Jake had been working, now moved in to inspect the creature that had disturbed their forest and the raven that had been perched in the branches of a nearby by tree, watching Jake as he worked, rose and flew off into the forest, as if to take a message to whoever or whatever it served.

Will kicked his horse to make it go faster. The further they went into the forest the more his concerns for Jake grew. Suddenly he caught a movement in the corner of his eye and he glanced nervously at the trees around him. He didn't have Jake and the magic axe to make the tree retreat if anything should happen. But it was only Angelika catching up with him.

"Will, slow down!"

"I need to find Jake."

"You don't even know where he is – he could be anywhere in the forest."

"He went back to the tower, we both know that."

But he did slow down and Cavaldi caught up with them.

"I think we should keep going – I don't like the way this forest is looking at us."

Will would have laughed at this if he hadn't had the same thought himself.

"Will, we're nearly there. Lets tether the horses and go on foot from here." said Angelika

They tied their horses to the trees and then followed Angelika deeper into the forest.

"No move," said Calvaldi to the tree he had tied his horse to.

To Will they seemed to walking for miles until the trees started to thin and they came out into the clearing surrounding the ruins of the tower. Just being there make Will feel nervous and he wanted to find his brother and get out of there as soon as possible.

"Jake!" he called. There was no response. Just silence from the forest. Will cast a glance at Angelika and Cavaldi.

"Jake!" he called again "If you don't answer me…" He stopped himself; this was no time for Jake to think that he was angry with him. "… look I'm not mad a you for coming here and you must be tired, you can't have slept for days!"

Again, there was no answer.

"Let's split up and search, we can cover more ground that way. We have probably missed Jake in the forest and you can yell at him when we get back to Marbarden," suggested Angelika. So they started to check the area around the tower, each of them calling for Jake as they went.

What do I do if I can't find him thought Will; I'm supposed to protect him. It was the last thing that their mother had asked him to before she had died, and it seemed that he had failed in that task now, as well. He had always failed those he loved. He couldn't protect any of them, not Lotte, not their mother and now Jake had disappeared just as it seemed they were getting a chance to start again, to find a way to understand each other better. He had always kept Jake as far from him emotionally as he could while at the same time keeping as close as he could. He was shallow and a conman, that much he knew, but if he let people get close to him they always got hurt. Just look what had happened to Hidlick and Bunst! So he had conned people and womaniser, and even he had to admit that he had been damn good at it. He had believed people to be naïve and gullible and had used Jake's knowledge of their folk tales and fears so that he could keep an eye on him and protect him from harm.

"Will, over 'ere!" The call from Calvaldi had broken into his introspection. Will ran in the direction of the call.

Cavaldi had his back to him as he approach and was crouched over something on the ground. As he approached Cavaldi turned towards him revealing Jake laid on the ground.

"Jake!" called Will, his voice full on fear and nervousness and he ran towards his brother's prone form. Cavaldi let him come and Will knelt next to his brother.

"Jacob…Jake," Will called softly as he rolled Jacob into his arms so that his head rested on his shoulder. At that moment Angelika arrived.

"Warm and breathing… just sleeping," said Cavaldi.

"Jake wake up, you can't sleep here. Come on, we'll get you back to the village and you can sleep there. Jake wake up!"

Will knew that Jake wasn't just sleeping, he had been "sleeping with Jake" for many years and Jake dreamt when he slept, and when Jake dreamt he talked and moved in his sleep. He was never silent and still in the way he was now. He wondered if Jake was sick. He gently shook Jake to wake him. Suddenly a raven took off from one of the nearby trees, calling as it went.

Jake began to stir in Will's arms and slowly opened his eyes. "Will?" he asked, his voice heavy with sleep.

"Yes."

Jake forced his eyes open and looked around. Not only was Will there, but also Angelika and Cavaldi. It seemed that a search party had been organised to find him. Jake suddenly felt embarrassed, as though he had been caught doing something that he shouldn't. He tried standing up, Will rising with him, but a sudden dizziness made him stagger and Will caught him.

"Easy Jake…easy," said Will has he lowered him back down again and cast a concerned look at the others. He placed his hand of Jake's forehead.

"I'm not sick Will, just tired."

"Then what are you doing here?"

"I had things that I had to do," said Jake, his eyes glancing to something behind Will's shoulder and then quickly away again.

"Jake the Queen is gone, the children and Angelika are safe, and I'm back from the dead – all thanks to you. What could you possibly have to do here?"

"Just some things I have to do, "Jake repeated. Cavaldi was glancing around and realised that they were very near to the place where he had laid the dying Will after his fall from the tower and must mean that the body of the Woodsman should be nearby, but all he could see was a pile of rocks. Had Jake buried the Woodsman?

"Jacob…the Woodsman?" he asked. At this both Will and Angelika looked from him to Jacob.

"My father?" said Angelika.

"Father?" said Cavaldi "Oh…" and he looked back towards the pile of stones.

Angelika rose and slowly walked towards them, she appeared to be lost in shock.

"I'm sorry Angelika, I know I should have brought him back to village, but I didn't know how to do it and the French will be here soon. If I don't find Delatombe's body they will and if they do they'll execute Will for killing him. But Delatombe was trying to kill Will at the time so it was really self defence, but I don't think they will believe him and I can't let them kill him. He's the only family I have. Please, you have to believe me; I thought I was doing what was best. I'm sorry." Jake knew he was babbling, but it was all coming out in a rush. How could he make them understand that he wasn't being stupid and that they really did have to find Delatombe's body to make sure the French didn't. Then everything thing would be all right and he could rest, knowing everyone was safe.

While Jake had been speaking Angelika had bent down and put her hands against the rocks that covered her father. She stayed there for a moment and then returned swiftly to Jake. She took his head in her hands and kissed him on the lips. "Thank you." They held each other gaze for a moment.

"But I still have to find Delatombe," said Jake and he rose and stood shakily on his feet.

"Jake, he fell on the catapult, remember?"

"Actually Will I was flying through the air at the time so I don't quite remember where he landed."

"Well do you see that big pile of rubble by the remains of the catapult?"

"Yes."

"He's somewhere under that. So if the French want to find him they are going to have to move most of the tower and I for one am not going to give them any ideas about where to look!"

"So it's all right then?"

"Yes, Jake it's all right."

With that Jake felt a burden had been removed from his shoulders. Jake gave a smile, a small sigh and let the darkness claim him.


	3. Chapter 3

3

She watched as the young man fell, his brother's call full of concern and fear. She watched as he bent to the silent figure and lifted him up.

"Angelika, we need to get Jake out of this place! Which way are the horses?"

Angelika glanced around, usually the trees would have moved and she would need to find the toad to be certain of the way. But this time it seemed that the path had opened up before them.

"This way." she said.

The found the horses much quicker than they had expected and, as they got there, Jake again stirred in his brother's arms. Will laid Jake on the ground as his eyes came open.

"Jake, how are you feeling?"

"Sorry Will, I just got a bit dizzy back there. I guess I must have fainted," he said with a weak smile. "I'm just tired and a bit thirsty."

Will realised that Jake must, by now, be dehydrated as he hadn't seen any water bottles near where they had found him. "Yes, let me get you some water," as he turned to go to his horse Angelika handed him a bottle, "here Jake, drink some of this." He held the bottle to Jake's lips as he drank a few mouthfuls.

"Jake we're at the horses and we need to get you back to the village. Do you think you can ride?"

"I'll try."

They set off slowly with Angelika leading the way, Jake sitting behind Will and Cavaldi bringing up the rear. Soon after they set off Will felt Jake's full weight against his back.

"Will, Jake is asleep again." Cavaldi informed him. Jake didn't wake again until they were back to the village.

She watched them as they passed through the forest, she had warned the trees not to interfere. She knew that she had to speak the young man, what he had taken from the forest could only bring him misery. She thought he had learnt that lesson in the tower, but she had been wrong. She had planned to speak to him in his dreams, that was why she had cast the spell to send him to sleep, but his brother had arrive before she could do that. His brother might be the only hope he had.

So she watched them go and sat and thought, as she had done for many years when she was powerless to help those in the forest. But now she had the power and knew she must use it wisely.

They had returned to Angelika's house using a back route that didn't take them through the village. Will didn't want anyone to see a "sick" Jake and rumours to start. All that Jake needed was chance to get some sleep, he would be fine, and Will was determined to see that he got it.

Will laid Jake gently on the bed and then started to remove his clothes, "Jake, you know this would be a lot easier if you helped a bit." said Will as he tried to remove Jake's shirt. Jake obligingly turned over. "Thanks." As he turned to leave Jake gave a small sigh and turned onto his side. Now that was more like the sleeping Jake that he was used to. Now that he was out of forest Will was sure that Jake was going to be all right. He checked that Jake's glasses and bag were close by if he awoke, and then returned to Angelika and Cavaldi in the main room.

"He's settled and sleeping peacefully," he said as he sat down,"how can one person get themselves into so much trouble without even trying?"

"'e's naturally gifted?" suggested Cavaldi.

Will gave a small laugh and smiled.

"Here," said Angelika placing drinks in front of them all, "I think we have earned these today." She turned to Will "Look, he's going to be okay, you can stop worrying about him."

"I'll never stop worrying about him … But he's right; we are going to have to come up with a story for the French. They are going to come sooner or later to find out what has happened to their General and I have a feeling that they might not believe the truth, I'm not entirely sure that I believe it! They were more than half convinced that Jake and I were to blame before and now they'll probably just execute us and ask questions later."

"In that case we need to call a village meeting, I'll go and see Gregor about it." And Angelika rose from the table.

"I'll come with you and I can personally tell Sasha that Jake is all right."

As they were passing the door to the bedroom they heard a strange sound. Will turned and opened the door. Jake was tossing and turning on the bed, talking, although Will couldn't make out what he was saying.

He approached the bed and took one of Jake's hands in his own. "It's all right Jake, I'm here. There is nothing that can harm you here."

"Will…not the knife!"

Will realised, with a shudder, that Jake was reliving what had happened in the tower. He as torn between wanting to wake Jake from his nightmare and the realisation that this might be the only chance he would have to find out what had happened in the tower. He suspected that it would be a long time, if ever, before Jake would talk to him about it, even thought their relationship was getting better.

So he let the nightmare continue and he quickly became aware that this was no ordinary dream. Jake was recounting what had happened in the tower as if he were reading it like a one of his stories. Producing a vivid picture of what had happened, the slight shudder that had passed through his arm as the knife entered Will's heart, the desperation that had led him to smash the mirror to prevent the Queen and Will's kiss only to have to watch as Will and Angelika's father fell from the window as Will tried to save the mirror and finally to the fear his own life when he realised that the tower was falling and he had no way of getting out, then he had noticed the mattresses…

Eventually the nightmare passed and Jake became still. Will rose slowly from his brother's side and, not quite knowing why, he placed a kiss on Jake's forehead as their mother had done when they were children.

He turned towards the door and saw Angelika and Cavaldi standing there, they both looked shocked.

"Angelika, I'm sorry about your father." He knew it sounded stupid and weak but there was nothing else that he could think to say, nothing that could actually convey the misery that he felt about what he had done to the women that his brother loved.

"Will, my father died last winter. It was his body that was kept alive by the Queen and now he is free."

Will had never felt such gratitude as he felt at that moment. Maybe there was a future for him and his brother in Marbarden. Maybe they could finally put down some roots and begin to build lives for themselves instead of just moving from place to place. He knew that they could never go back to their scams now. Not only was the fact that they had been scams now known, but he no longer had the heart for it, now that he knew that at least some magic was real. Before it has always been just a game that was both fun and profitable, a chance to prove that he was smarter than those they conned and no one got hurt. He had always know that Jake saw it differently, but that didn't matter because Jake believed in magic and magic didn't exist. But now it did.

"We need to get that meeting organised as quickly as possible. Cavaldi would you stay with Jake, I don't want him to be alone if he wakes before we get back."

"Gladly."

Will and Angelika reached Gegor's house in a few minutes. They quickly explained to Gregor what had happened in the forest and the need to have a consistent story for the French when they arrived. They agreed to call a village meeting for the next day. Then Will turned his attention to Sasha.

"Jake is sleeping at Angelika's house, but I will make sure that he comes to see when he wakes." He promised.

Jake slept for the rest of the day and the following night, with Will watching over him. He woke early next morning with no idea where he was. He wasn't wearing his glasses, which was unusual and made him nervous. Also, he didn't know where his book was which sent a shiver of fear down his spine. His life as in that book, his research and stories and everything he held dear. Where was he? He slowly looked around to try to get his bearings and saw Will sleeping in a chair next to his bed. Have I been ill, he wondered, had there been some reaction to the events of the last few days? He didn't feel achy or cold. In fact, he felt well rested and better than he had in the past few months. He could make no sense of it.

Why Will was sleeping in a chair he didn't understand, but he thought it best not to disturb him as he eased himself out of bed. He spotted his glasses on a nearby table and put them on, blinking as his vision came back into focus and noticed that his bag was also there. He opened the bag and took out his book. If he was confused or upset he always found that writing calmed him and helped him sort out this thoughts. It had also proved to be a good deterrent against Will in the past as he never seemed to bother Jake when he was writing. He reached into his bag to get his writing materials and his figures brushed against a bundle in his bag; he withdrew it and stared at it. He had no idea what was in the bundle or how it had come to be in his bag. He slowly unwrapped the bundle and stared at the contents. They sent another shiver down his spine. He looked up at his sleeping brother.

"Oh Will!" He breathed, as memories of the past few hours came back to him. He had to keep Will safe from these, but he was not sure how. He needed time to think about it and plan what to do so he quickly re-wrapped the bundle and put it back into his bag. He rose from the bed and crossed to the window.

Will woke with a start to find that Jake was no longer in the bed; he looked quickly around the room and spotted him by the window.

"How are you feeling?" he asked as he went to join him.

"Better, thanks," Jake replied, but to Will he still seemed a bit distracted.

"No really, are you feeling better? You had me worried for a while back there." Will absentmindedly scratched at the thin scar on his chest, which was itching, Jake visibly paled and stared at his feet.

"Jake, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. Look the scar's healing." Jake had to agree that the scare was indeed fainter then it had been when he had been it last as they walked back from the tower. He suspected that soon it be gone altogether.

Will looked at his younger brother, not sure what to do. He didn't want to pressure Jake, as he was scared that he would retreat back into his introverted and magic filled world, which he had seemed to be coming out of after their return from defeating the Queen. But he needed to talk to him, to get him to understand that he wanted to be a better brother to him, he just didn't know how. They both needed to talk and sort out some of their problems, but he knew now was not the time, so he decided to leave Jake alone for a while, to let him gather his thoughts.

"Just come out when you feel up to it," he said

"Will, where am I? I don't recognise this place."

Will smiled. "Believe it or not you are in Angelika's bedroom. We brought you here because it meant that we didn't have to go through the village and have any questions to answer later. I thought that you just needed time to rest and you'd be all right. If you play your card right you might be see the room again some time!" he added.

"No I won't." Jake replied quietly to himself as he watched his brother leave the room.

Jake returned to the bed and removed the dagger and mirror from his bag and stared at them. What he was doing with them he had no idea. But he knew that he had to destroy them and that was going to take some research, which meant that he would have to leave Marbarden. Which, he decided, was probably not a bad idea as he couldn't see a future here for himself without Angelika and he had always planned to return to his studies at some point. If he was ever going to publish a collection of folk tales as he had originally planned before Will had shown up in his life again now seemed the time to do it, he might even included a couple of his stories as well.

So he put the bundle containing the dagger and mirror back in his bag, put his clothes back on and went out to find Will.


	4. Chapter 4

4.

The village meeting was taking place in the church and it was nearly full as Jake entered, followed closely by Will, Angelika and Cavaldi. Will went to stand by Gregor at the front of the church whilst Jake took the same seat as had when they had met to discuss the missing girls and took his book out of his bag.

"Are you alright?" the voice came from beside him. Jake turned and saw that Sasha had come to sit by him.

"Yes," he replied with a smile, "I had Will to protect me." Sasha gave him a hug. This seemed to break the ice in the church and as he looked around he could see smiles directed at him. One by one Lily, Elsie, Greta and all the other girls came to sit by him.

"Jake, if you have finished gathering your appreciation society, can we begin the meeting?" asked Will and Jake went bright red.

Gregor stepped forward. "Sooner or later the French are going to arrive to find out what happened here, and when they do they are going to be looking for someone to blame. We need to decide what we are going to do. Are we going to come up with a convincing story or are we going to let them take Will, Jake and Cavaldi?"

"We can't let them do that!" cried Elsie's mother, "they saved our daughter's lives and defeated the Queen. We can't just give them up."

"We can't let the French take them," agreed a voice from the crowd, "we wouldn't have a village if it wasn't for them!"

"So we are agreed then," said Gregor "we need a convincing story that we can all remember and then we stick to it, not matter what."

"Well, Jake, you're the writer, got any ideas?" asked Will.

"I think…" replied Jake, "that the best idea is to keep it simple and keep as much of the truth in it as possible. You should stick to the truth up to the point where the fire was put out and after that the villagers should say that Angelika and Cavaldi brought the children back alone and that they don't know what happened to us. Angelika, you should say that you rescued us from the fire and we went after the children. In the forest we met up with Delatombe, Cavaldi and the valet and that we all rescued the children... and that we were in the tower when it collapsed and haven't been seen since. Oh, and I wouldn't make too much mention of magic."

"It would probably good if they found some of our props by the tower," he added to Will, "it will back up the story of our being conmen and using tricks."

"Props?" asked Gregor.

"I guess it's time for a confession. To tell you all the truth until we came to Mabarden I never believed in magic and thought that all those who did were rather foolish."

"Foolish!?" said Jake, "you never called me foolish, you used plenty of other words, but never foolish."

"Well, I've changed my views a bit since then, Jake." Will turned back to the villagers. "And what we did was to use Jake's knowledge of folklore to help create the witches and trolls that plagued villages; then we would arrive and "defeat" them, for suitable recompense."

A murmur went around the church, but Will looked them straight in the eye. "Don't blame Jake for any of this. He didn't want to do it, but I can be very persuasive when I want to be and really gave him no option. If it helps Jake was very close to quitting before we were brought here."

"You knew?"

"Of course, and was damn scared that you were going to break up the partnership. I mean, what else do I know how to do?" Will turned back to the villagers. "I am truly sorry for have deceived you all, but I have learnt from my mistake and now know that there is some truth to the legends that Jake loves. All I can ask is that you forgive me and hopefully what we did here will give you some sort of trust in us. If you decided that you want to give me up to the French, I'm willing to do that. But you must not give Jake to them."

Will stood and waited for the villagers to answer him. Jake thought he had never seen his brother look more heroic than he did then right at the moment.

"No, it's both or us or neither. We're brothers and we stick together."

"Jake, we can discuss this later."

"Yes, we can!"

"Jake, is what Will is saying true?" asked Angelika.

"Yes, all true. I'm not proud of it, but Will is not all to blame. I went along with it and I could have walked away at any time, I just didn't have the courage."

Gregor rose slowly and walked to the front of the church. "I think we need to consider this in private, Will. If you and Jake would wait outside."

"Of course," and he and Jake left the church, they were joined by Cavaldi. "After all I was part of the deception too." They walked towards the well and stopped.

"Do you think that I have ruined it all back there?"

"No, I think they will believe us. After all, we did save Angelika and the children, and if they do decide to give us to the French we can always run. It will just be a little more difficult to make a living, with a new recruit, and we will have to change our name, of course."

"Never!!" replied Will, with a grin.

It was nearly an hour later when Gregor and Angelica came to find them. They stood staring at each other until the silence grew awkward.

"Well," said Angelika, "what do you think we need to take to the tower to make this trick of yours work then?"

They all returned to the meeting and Jake went on to outline what he thought they would need to move to the tower to make their story convincing. After the meeting Jake helped Will move their things from Angelika's back to house that they were sharing. Jake was pleasant to Angelika but Will noticed that he wasn't as attentive to her as he had been earlier and he wondered what was going on. He had thought that Jake really loved her and it had been a kiss of true love that had broken the spell, so what had changed with Jake? Did he think that Will was interested in her? True, he thought Angelika was attractive, but he wasn't in love with her and he couldn't let Jake give up his true love for that kind of misunderstanding. He added this to his list of things that he and Jake needed to talk about.

They spent the evening with Angelika and Cavaldi. They had a few drinks and Will explained the intricacies of how a really good con should be staged and about some of the cons that he and Jake had pulled off in the past.

"In fact we're almost as good as Cavaldi is," said Will.

"What!" replied the torturer, "I come from a long line of well respected torturers from Palma. We are the greatest at what we do."

"I'm sure you do. But aren't torturers supposed to hurt people to get information out of them? I mean the only thing we had seen cause harm to was that kitten, and that was an accident. When you were "torturing" Jake and I all you did was tie us up and hang us from the ceiling, it was a bit uncomfortable but not exacting life threatening."

"And there was room in that machine for me to get out of the way," added Angelika.

"Even Hidlick and Bunst said that all you did was the strap them into those chairs, put snails on their heads and hang them over that cauldron."

Will and Jake exchanged a glance at this point as they both thought of their dead friends.

"I nearly let them go into the boiling oil," replied Cavaldi somewhat defensively.

"But you didn't, did you. It was like you were playing up to Delatombe. Remember you are talking to a couple of ex-conmen here, we know a thing or two about fooling people.

"Well, I guess that I have always been a bit of a disappointment to my family. You see I don't actually like the sight of blood." Cavaldi glanced down at the floor before he continued, "In fact, I have a tendency to faint at the sight of it."

Now this did make Will and Angelika laugh, even Jake smiled. Cavaldi just looked embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, my friend," said Will, "it's just that a torturer who faints at the sight of blood must have few problems with his career. But I promise that your secret is safe with us!!"

"Delatombe was my last chance. I don't know what I am going to do now. My family will complain about all expense of putting me through medical school, they will probably want me to pay back all the money!"

"You went to medical school?" enquired Angelika

"Yes, I told them that it a study of anatomy would improve my torturing skills and I managed to attend most of the other classes. I actually liked the curing people part of it best, but that wasn't what I was there for so my family removed me before I could qualify."

Will looked across at Jake and saw that he was having problems keeping his eyes open.

"Looks like we should be going. See you in the morning Angelika." and he kissed her on the cheek.

She returned the kiss, "Good night to both of you" and she kissed Jake on the cheek as well. He did not return the gesture.

"I guess he must be tired," said Will, as he and Jake left the house. They walked back to their house in silence. When they got their Jake went straight to his bed. Will stood and watched him go. There was definitely something bothering his brother and they needed to discuss it, but it was late and he was tired so it would have to wait until morning.

"Goodnight Jacob." he called as he went to his own bed. Jake did not reply.

Jake was riding Pepper through the forest. The trees were parting to create his path and then closing behind him so that he couldn't go back, even if he wanted. Jake felt no hostility from the trees, in fact the further into the forest he went the more the feeling of excitement grew in him. Something was going to happen – he just didn't know what. Pepper entered a clearing in the forest and Jake dismounted. He led the horse to the spring in the clearing and let him drink.

"Hello Jake," said a voice from behind him, "we need to have talk."

"What about?" asked Jake as he turned, but there was no one behind him.

"I think that you already know. You shouldn't have taken them, they will only bring you pain."

"I took them so that they wouldn't cause pain! If I keep them, they can't cause anyone pain."

"Except you."

"I can cope with the pain, I've lived with it most of my life, and I deserve it."

"Do you?"

"Yes, for what I did I deserve a lifetime of pain."

"And you are prepared to inflict pain on others to see that you get it. GIVE THEM BACK TO THE FOREST."

"Who are you?"

"You know that as well."

Jake woke with a start. He felt that there was no air in the room, he couldn't breath and the walls were closing in on him. He went and sat by the fire, watching the embers die. Very soon his eyes were closing again.

This time he knew where he was. She was seated on the throne and was smiling at him.

"Hello, Jacob."

"What do you want?" He was fighting to control his breathing. He wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go.

"How is dear Wilhelm? No problems with his heart, I trust?"

"Leave Will alone!"

"Then I will need you – you know it's for the best. You killed your sister and your brother. Pain is all you can bring to those you love. You belong to magic, not the real world. "

"No!" cried Jake. He woke to find himself lying on the floor with Will staring down at him.

"Jake, what's the matter?" Will face was full of concern.

"Just nightmares."

"Come on, let me get you some breakfast," and he helped Jake to his feet. "My cooking has got to be worse then any nightmare!"

Jake spent most of the day brooding about his dreams Who was the woman who wanted him the return the dagger and mirror to the forest, she said that he knew who she was, but he had no idea. Was she simply a trick of the Queen to get him back into the forest? If so, why had he had the second dream? He needed to go back to his book and check the Queen's story again and he needed a quiet place to do that. So he went to the stables and climb up onto the roof. He had never had a fear of heights, unlike Will, and he had always been the one install the ropes and harnesses for their scams. Once he had even walked from one end of a barn to the other simply using the roofing supports, it was only when he had both feet on the ground that he found it hard to stay upright. Hidlick and Bunst had thought it was very good and cheered him on, but Will had simply glared at him and told him to stop his childish games.

The sun warmed his back as he removed his book from his bag and started to flip through the pages looking for the notes he had made on the story when he had first read it. After half an hour or so of flicking between pages he put the book down and took the bundle out of his bag. In the daylight the dagger looked almost ordinary, only the design on the "hilt" marked it out as being something special. He turned it around, examining it closely; the face on dagger matched those carved on the crypts. Several more flakes dropped from the blade and settled in his hands. Jake felt his throat begin to tighten as he looked at them and thought, again, of Will. He removed a handkerchief from his pocket and placed the flakes in it, and then he carefully folded it and returned it to his pocket.

He stared again at the blade and saw that there seemed to be more than one layer of blood, it would seem that the Queen had used the dagger on others before. How many others Jake didn't know but the knowledge strengthened his resolve to not let the dagger ever be used again.

Next he picked up the mirror fragment. Even looking at it he could feel his heartbeat start to rise. He took a few deep breaths and looked into its reflecting surface. His reflection showed nothing of what he had been through during the past few days; it just showed the face of the young man with a beard, wearing glasses. His brown eyes stared back at him, and he thought he saw a hint of the pain that was inside him. A pain that he had lived with from the day that he had killed his sister. The rational part of him knew that he had been young and too trusting of others when he had made his mistake and it had been the fever that had actually killed his sister. But he had changed all of that. Now he trusted no-one with his innermost secrets, not even Will, and he had helped everyone that he could in the hope that this may, some day, partially balance out what he had done. But he could never forgive himself and the fact that Will's anger at his act had driven the brothers apart for so long only reinforced the feelings he had. He could save the entire world but he would never be able to wash his sister's blood from his hands.

He had searched through all the old records and folk tales he could find to see if there was anyway to change his past when he had been a scholar. But, so far, he had not uncovered anything that was useful. Over the years his knowledge of these tales had grown to such an extent that he was now a walking encyclopaedia on the subject and used many of these references in his stories, he even suspected that they had entered his dreams, although Will never said anything about this.

"Lotte, please forgive me. I'm so sorry for what I did to you and I would change it if I could." He said softly to the air.

Suddenly his eyes closed and the mirror fell from his fingers. He never felt a thing as the fragment cut into his finger as it fell and a single drop of blood slid across its surface.

He was stood in the tower, looking out of the window back towards Marbarden. He felt something touch his chest and when he looked down he could see a hand sliding down, another was encircling his waist. Then he felt her breath on the back of his neck.

"Hello, Jacob," she whispered in his ear, "I'm glad you came back to me. This is where you belong. I can give you anything you desire."

"Anything?"

"Yes, anything your heart desires."

"Leave my brother alone."

"If you insist, but he so very handsome."

"And leave everyone in Marbaden alone, as well."

"You drive a very had bargain. What will you give me in return?"

"Me."

"And is there nothing else you want, my tortured prince?"

Jake did not reply.

"There must be something that your heart truly desires?"

Then he was facing her, and her lips met his in the sweetest kiss he had ever felt. He never wanted it to end. He wanted to stay here forever. Thoughts of Will, Angelika and Marbarden were wiped from his mind and he felt more peace than he had felt in years. But that all faded as the Queen pulled away from the kiss, biting Jake's bottom lip as she did. She looked into Jake's eyes and smiled.

"I'll give you a little time to think about it," she gently pushed Jake in the chest. He staggered backwards; he felt the window ledge behind him but couldn't stop. He over balanced and found himself falling. He looked below and saw the ground rushing up towards him.

Jake woke with a start to see the mirror sliding towards the edge. He reached out to grab it, feeling himself start to slip as he did so. He fingertips hooked the mirror and he threw himself back in an effort to stop his slide towards the edge of the roof. His fingers dug in and he managed to stop himself inches from going over the edge. He took a few deep breaths and then slowly climbed back to where his bag, his book and the dagger lay.

Feeling slightly shaky he climbed down and made his way back to their house, glance back towards the roof as he did so. What injuries he would have received had he fallen he didn't know, but they would have been nothing compared to what could have happened if Will had found the dagger and mirror in the aftermath.

He was tired and scared, and needed someone to comfort him and tell him that everything would be all right. But for so long he had kept worries to himself and solved his own problems. Before Will had never shown any interested in his problems unless they either affected their schemes or implied immediate physical harm. Jake knew that the events in the tower had changed his brother and that now he had a chance of a better relationship with Will and he didn't want to risk that for what was just a stupid dream.

"Jake, are you there?" asked Will as he entered the house. He noticed that Jake's bag was on the table and then he noticed his brother sat by the fire. He seemed to be sleeping.

"Jake, are you okay?" asked Will as he went toward his brother.

"Wha…" Jake woke and looked around. Will thought he looked a little confused, but said nothing. "Sorry Will, I must have fallen asleep."

"Jake, are you sure you're okay? It seems that every time I go looking for you at the moment I find you asleep, and you're having nightmares again." He crouched down by Jake's chair. "Look, I'm fine and the scar on my chest is fading. There is nothing left for you to be worrying yourself about. You saved the day, remember!"

He brought a chair and sat beside his brother. He took a breath. "Jake, is there anything that you want to tell me? I'll listen and not make any stupid comments, I promise. I know we need to talk about a lot of things, but can we start with this?"

Jake stared into the fire as he considered his answer.

"Will, I have been having nightmares…" he had to take a couple of breaths before he could continue. "…about the Queen. I'm in the tower and she is…talking to me." Jake looked away from his brother and stared down at the fire again.

"Oh, Jacob." Will lent forward, put a finger under Jake's chin and raised his face to that they were eye to eye. "Jake, listen to me. You have no need to have these dreams. Everything is okay now; there is nothing for you to be worried about! You do understand this, don't you?"

"Yes. Will, just be patient with me, I'm sure that they will go with time."

"Of course, I'd do anything for my little brother, expect wear another bonnet!"

"I wore one too!"

"I know, but yours suited you."

"It did?"

"Yes, you looked very dashing in it. You should think about getting a dress to match!"

Will looked at his brother and saw a smile on his face.

"That's better. Sorry about the stupid comment, I did promise."

"That's okay."

"Come on, let's go and see if we can convince Angelika to feed us tonight. I don't feel like cooking."


	5. Chapter 5

5.

They had finished the food and Lily and Rose had agreed to help Jake do the dishes, with the promise of a story as their reward. They were looking forward to sharing it with the other girls the next day. Will had watched Jake while they ate and he seemed to be in a better mood than he had been earlier in the day and he a even shown Angelika some affection by giving her a kiss on the cheek when he arrived, to girly giggles from Lily and Rose. He had smiled a few times during the meal. Will began to feel more relaxed about his brother.

It was as they were walking back to the house that Jake dropped his bombshell.

"I'm leaving Marbarden."

Will reached over and grabbed Jake's arm making his brother turn to face him.

"What!? You can't! What about Angelika, I thought you loved her?

"Angelika is a grown woman and can get along without me."

"I thought this was our chance to make a new life for ourselves here? To give up the wandering and settle down?"

"The nightmares mean that I can't, Will." Jake looked down at the ground. "I've been thinking. The nightmares can only mean that I must have missed something about the Queen's story and it might be something important. I need to do more research, I only took very brief notes when I first read it, and to do that I need to back to the University. Besides, some time away from each other might be just what we need. We've not been apart for over five years now and we both need time and space to think."

Will just stood there and stared a Jake. He hadn't seen this coming. They had a chance to make a new start and Jake was saying that he wanted to leave. Did Jake's "new start" really mean "without Will"?

"Will you be coming back?"

"Of course!" Neither brother was entirely convinced by this.

"When are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow - the quicker I leave the quicker I'll be back."

"And were you planning on saying goodbye to me, Angelika, anyone?"

"I'm not good at goodbyes, you know that Will."

"So I was just going to find a note in the morning then?"

Jake didn't answer. He just turned and walked back toward the house. Will stood in silence and watched him go.

"Jake! When are you going to start having feelings for someone other then yourself!?" He yelled after his brother. Jake just continued to walk. Will quickly caught up with his brother and stood in front of him.

"Answer my question, Jake! Do you think you can just come and go as you please?"

"I have to do this."

"Why, Jake why?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"What is it that I wouldn't understand?"

"Because…its my world, not yours."

"JACOB GRIMM, STOP LIVING IN A FANTASY! You have so much here, all you have to do is reach out and take it."

" I can't Will. The dreams tell me I can't."

"Then you had better just go, and when the dreams tell you that you can come back hopefully most of us will still be here!" Will turned back towards Angelika's house leaving Jake alone. Angelika opened the door as he got there.

"Can I come in? I've just had an argument with Jake."

"I know, I heard. It'll be all over the village by morning."

"And they'll all side with Jake, no doubt, not his big mean brother. But Jake needs to learn to live in the real world. I thought he was beginning to when we came back from the forest. He was talking about our future, and how we probably don't have one! "

Angelika let Will talk. She knew from experience that when Will didn't understand Jake's reason for doing something, he worried that Jake might get hurt, and this came out as anger toward Jake.

"Will you can't always protect Jake, he has to learn from his own mistakes sometimes. You love each other and that will always be there." She decided to change the subject. "What is Jake dreaming about?"

Will explained what Jake had told him of his dreams about the Queen and that he thought that it meant there was something missing from the story.

"I guess I'm scared that if he does leave he'll find he prefers life at the University to life with me and he won't come back. Then we'll never get a chance to get to know each other better." He gave Angelika a weak smile.

"Look, why don't you stay here tonight. You and Jake can talk it through in the morning. You could even go with him, I think Marbarden could cope without the two of you for a few weeks!"

"Angelika, will you marry me!"

"No."

They both laughed and Angelika went to find blankets and pillows for Will.

Jake had returned to the house. When he realised that Will wasn't going to come looking for him he packed the few things he needed, including his book, the dagger and the mirror, and made his way quietly towards the stables. Will was right; it was better to leave now than to face everyone in the morning. They all must have heard his argument with Will and what must they all be thinking about him now? They said he had saved their village, but he couldn't even live in the real world! He saddled his horse and led her to edge of the village, then took the road towards Malsburg that skirted the forest.

But someone had seen Jake leaving and decided the follow him, for they were concern that he might get hurt out there all alone. So they left the house and took the road to Malsburg as well.

Jake let the horse decide the pace at which they travelled. He had more important things to think about. There wasn't a day that had gone by when he hadn't thought about what had resulted from his actions all those years ago. He could never forgive himself for what he had done, even if one day Will could. He could never find a way to repay Will for what he had taken from him. His actions had begun the destruction of their family and led to their life of scams and never being able to settle in one place. What life might Will have had if things had been different? He loved Angelika, but how could he settle down and lead the "normal" life that he had denied to Will?

By this time the horse had stopped and seemed much more interested in the grass at the side of the road then in moving forward, but Jake, lost in his own thoughts hadn't noticed this. In fact he didn't hear the footsteps of the person following him as they came closer to where he had stopped.

"Jacob." The two voices called simultaneously.

Jake jumped in the saddle, startled out of his thoughts by the voices. He turned to look behind him. In the moonlight he could see that he had been followed from Marbarden.

"Sasha, what are you doing here? You shouldn't be out alone in the forest, it not safe and you'll worry your father to death if he wakes and finds you gone!"

"It's okay Jake, she'll be perfectly fine. I won't let anything happen to her. She was just worried about you and wanted to make sure you were all right. But you're not all right are you? We need to talk, but first you need to get some sleep."

Jake felt his eyes start to close. He turned and saw the figure of a cloaked woman standing at the edge of the forest. Her smile was the last thing that he remembered as he slipped into unconsciousness and started the slide from his horse. Tree branches gentled entwined themselves around his body and lowered him to the ground.

Next she walked toward Sasha, who stared at her. "Please don't hurt him," she whispered.

"I'm not going to hurt him. But there are things that need to be discussed tonight that you should not hear, so sleep." She caught Sasha as she fell, carried her a short way into the forest and laid her on the ground. "Make sure she is neither hurt or disturbed," she said and then returned to Jake's silent form. By the time she had reached him there was no sign of where Sasha laid, just a new thicket in the forest.

Jake was woken by someone blowing softly in his ear. "Stop it. I'll get up when I'm ready!" he grumbled and raised his arm to push away the person who was trying to wake him, but what his fingers touched wasn't human. He was fully awake in a second and staring that the thing that had woken him.

"Pepper!" he breathed staring at the familiar equine face which he had last seen disappearing into the forest having swallowed Elsie. He had assumed that the horse had perished in the fire that Delatombe had set and he smiled happily to see this wasn't true.

"Sorry old thing, I don't have anything for you. Where have you been?" he asked the horse as he gently stroked it.

Pepper was the one thing that Jake had kept from his life as scholar. He had used the last of his money to buy the horse from an owner that was mistreating it and horse and master had grown to understand each other so well over the years that the horse often knew what Jake wanted before he did. Will had joked that he had a better relationship with the horse than with him and, until recently, Jake had agreed with him.

"I thought that you might need a friend in the coming hours," she said "and running away from Marbaden and everyone there will not make the problem go away."

"What problem?" asked Jake in confusion. He looked at the women who had spoken.

"The problem with the dagger and mirror. They can only cause you and those you love pain. Give them to me, return to Marbarden and you can sort our your problems, I promise you."

"I can't. I have to get them as far away as I can, and then I must find a way to destroy them. Until I have done that I can't go back. I need to keep them safe!"

"If you give them to me they will be safe."

"Can you destroy them?"

"No, they can only be destroyed when the Queen is defeated."

"But…didn't that happen when the mirror broke? The tower collapsed and everyone woke up!"

"You only broke the spell Jake. The Queen is still very much alive in the pieces of the mirror that have been scattered. One day they will be reunited and the Queen will be powerful again. If I hide the dagger and piece you have then I can prevent that from happening for as long as possible."

"But who are you?"

"You know that. Remember the story?"

Jake thought back to the story of the Queen that he had read whilst still a scholar.

"Oh…you were one she sent to collect the villager's spells? You tortured and skilled Angelika's ancestors!"

"Everyone has events in the past that they wish they could change, don't they Jacob? I have paid the price for what I have done, now I seek to make things better, if I can."

"But you're still the servant of the Queen! You expect me to give the dagger and the mirror to you!" Jake turned back to Pepper and gathered up the horse's reins.

"I stopped serving the Queen a long time ago." She smiled a sad smile "I am only trying to stop you making the same mistakes that I did. She used me like she will use you and when she has what she wants she will let you die."

"You are still here!"

"I know. She used me to make the spell for eternal life work and she needs you make the spell for eternal beauty work. She needs someone who was born with a natural understanding of magic, and we are few and far between. Why do you think the magic axe worked for you?"

"She used Will to try to finish the spell."

"Yes. But Will wasn't strong enough to make the spell last. She needed him for her servant, like Angelika's father before him. She knew that you would be willing to take the dagger into your heart to save him. It has to a willing sacrifice."

"But Will sacrificed himself to save me!"

"She needed it to be you Jake. It was the wrong brother who sacrificed himself in the tower."

"Everything was because of me?"

"Your love saved them, Jake. You even managed to release me from my spell. Now, please, give me the dagger and mirror and we can end this here. Or, if you don't want to do that, go back to Marbarden and talk to Angelika. Just don't leave the forest with them, out of the forest you can't be protected."

"Everything was because of me?" repeated Jake. He couldn't stand to think that Will had had to suffer again because of him. He was confused and anxious, and he needed to get away from the place and think about what he had learnt tonight. He started to walk away taking Pepper with him. As he left the clearing he hear her voice again.

"Jacob, just remember that Will and Angelika love you for what you are and that will never change."

Jake kept on walking through the trees and silence slowly gathered around him until all he could hear was his own breathing and Pepper hoof beats on the forest floor. There was a sudden stabbing pain in his head and then blackness.


	6. Chapter 6

6.

It was the rays of the rising sun that woke both Jake and Sasha the next day. Jake found himself lying on a bed of leaves and grasses in a clearly close to edge of the forest, his bag and recently packed belongings were nearby. He heard a sound behind him, turned and to his initial surprise found Pepper eating "breakfast" a few paces away. Then he remembered that he had thought someone was following him on the road last night, but it obviously must have been Pepper. What had happened to his other horse he wasn't sure, but he was certain it would find its way safely back to Marbarden.

"Good morning." he said to Pepper has he approached and the horse gently nuzzled his hand in response. "If you're looking for a treat your out of luck, at least until we get to Malsburg."

Master and horse regarded each other for a moment.

"I know, I know. But I really have to do this, and he will understand eventually. None of us can ever be truly safe until they are destroyed. Then I can return to Marbarden and Will can spend as long as he likes yelling at me. And I can introduce you to Angelika; she was the tracker who showed us the forest and the woman I love. So you had better be nice to her, no biting okay?"

Jake swiftly saddled Pepper and rode through the trees towards the road to Malsburg that he could just make out in the distance.

"Jacob!" called Will as he entered their house. "Jake are you there? Look, I've been thinking, I could come with you to the University and help you with the research. Two heads are better one!" There was no response. "Jake, I'm sorry about the fight. I just want to help you. Come on, we can talk this one through, can't we?" Again, there was no response.

Will quickly searched the house and found not only that Jake wasn't there, but that some of his clothes and his bag were gone as well. "Oh no! Jake what have you done now?" he moaned quietly. If Jake had indeed left Marbarden then he would have taken his horse as well, Will set off the check the stables.

"Cavaldi, are you in there? Have you seen Jake this morning?" Will pounded on the door of his house. It took a few moments but the former torturer came to the door, and by the look of him Will's shouting had woken him up.

"Grimmy! What is the matter?" he asked sleepily.

"I can't find Jake. We had an argument last night and I think he may have left. But I was hoping that he might have come to see you instead." Will raked his hands through his hair and sighed. "Look I need to go and check the stables and then I'll come back." Will started to leave but Cavaldi took his arm.

"Will, wait, I will get dressed and come with you. If Jake is gone then a few extra minutes won't make much difference. 'ave you spoken to Angelika, 'e might be there?" Cavaldi added with a grin.

"He's not there."

"'Ow can you be sure, if you 'aven't spoken to her?"

"I spent the night at Angelika's"

"You did!" Cavaldi stared at Will. If Jake knew that Will had spent the night with Angelika that would certainly prompt him to leave.

"Yes, her kitchen floor is not as comfortable as it looks!" replied Will pointedly.

"Oh." Cavaldi disappeared back into the house whilst Will paced back and forth. After what seemed to hours Cavaldi finally reappeared and they both set off towards the stables.

"His horse is gone!" Will turned towards his own horse, gathering the saddle and bridle as he went. Again Cavaldi stopped him. "What?! I need to get after him. He's been gone for hours, he could be anywhere by now!"

"Grimmy, we don't know which way 'e went! We need to ask around, someone may 'ave seen him leave." Cavaldi joined Will by his horse. "Do you have any idea where 'e may have gone?"

"Jake's had more dreams about what happened in the forest. He thought that they meant he missed something from the Queen's story. He said he was going back to the University to do more research."

"More dreams? Did' he give you any details?"

"Only that he was with the Queen and she was talking to him."

"Grimmy, this does not sound good. I think we should find Jake as soon as possible."

"I know! I need to follow him, will you let Angelika …"

"Will, Cavaldi have you seen Sasha?" Angelika entered the stables with Gregor just behind her. "We thought she might be with you or Jake."

"What… what about Sasha?"

"We can't find her. Have you or Jake seen her?" Angelika suddenly realised that the younger brother wasn't there. "Where is Jake?"

"He's gone. He must have left after our argument last night."

"Oh Will." Angelika came and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Why would he take Sasha with him?" asked Gregor.

"He wouldn't. But it she saw him leave, she might have followed him." suggested Angelika.

"But she wouldn't she knows that its dangerous in the forest at night!"

"If she had heard our argument…" Will didn't want to finish his sentence. He knew that if Jake had realised that Sasha was following him he would have made sure she got back safely. The thought of what could have happened to either of them alone in the forest at night filled Will with dread.

"We need to get after them both. Jake said that he was going to go back to the University and his first stop should have been Malsburg. I'm going to follow that road and hopefully I'll catch up with them. Gregor, don't worry, when Sasha catches up with Jake he'll make sure she is safe." Will started to saddle his horse. He needed to get after Jake. "Angelika would you check the forest just in case he went back there? Cavaldi would you come with me." When he caught up with Jake Will knew he might need someone to stop him loosing his temper again.

Will lead his horse from the stable. Followed by Cavaldi. They moved through the crowd of villagers who had gathered and stopped at the gate to the village.

"Everything is going to be fine. I'm going to find them and they are going to be fine." Will didn't know whom he was trying to reassure, but he hoped it was working. "And Cavaldi is going to stop me killing Jake." he added under his breath. "I'll see you all soon, with Jake and Sasha." He then turned to his horse.

"Papa!" came a voice. They all turned to see Sasha and woman approaching along the road from Malsburg.

"Sasha!" cried Gregor, his voice full of relief. Sasha slid off the horse they were riding and ran into her father's outstretched arms.

Thank God, thought Will, now all I have to find is Jake.

"Will, there's something wrong with Jake. You have to help him," she added.

"What sweetheart?" Will was staring at the woman approaching on the horse. "That… that's my brother's horse! Where is he?" The woman dismounted from the horse and walked towards him.

"We need to talk about your brother. Would you trust him with your life?"

"Absolutely."

"Would you trust him with his own?"


	7. Chapter 7

7

Jake had reached the edge of Malsburg and he was getting decidedly hungry. Food had been something he hadn't thought to pack when he left last night and, unlike Pepper, he hadn't had any breakfast. He urged the horse forward and they eventually arrived at the town gates.

"Halt! What do you want in our town?" asked the guard.

"I'm just a traveller pass through," replied Jake. He was reasonable sure that he wouldn't be recognised in the town. The last time they had been there he and Will had been "guests" of the French and hadn't been encouraged to mix with the townspeople. "I'm looking for a good place to get food, anywhere you can recommend?"

"Try the Queen's Arms, the last tavern in the street."

"Many thanks," replied Jake as he entered the town. It took a few minutes to reach the tavern and find a place to tether Pepper. "I won't be long; I just need to get something to eat." He rubbed the horse behind its ears. "If you don't get into trouble, neither will I" he said softly to the horse and then he turned to the door of the tavern.

Jake entered and went to the bar. He was a little nervous; Will usually handled this sort of thing whilst Jake would find seats and he usually had his book out by the time Will returned with the food.

"What can I get you?" asked the woman behind the bar. She was slightly younger than Jake and very pretty. Jake felt himself starting to go red and he glanced down. It was at times like these he wished he was more like Will, he naturally seem to know the right thing to say and wouldn't being making such a fool of himself.

"Actually I'm looking for some breakfast, I hope that I'm not too late?" He looked up and found that woman was smiling at him.

"You're a shy one aren't you! Go and find a seat and I'll see what I can get you."

"Thank you. I'll be sat over there." Jake pointed towards the window. He habitually chose seats with a good source of light, as taverns were often where he and Will would work out strategies for their "vanquishing of evil spirits". He sat down and automatically found himself pulling his book from his bag and starting to look through it. He stopped when he came to the notes he had taken on their first visit to Marbarden. He smiled as he remembered Will addressing Sasha as "That's right, son…" and Gregor's reply "that "boy" is my daughter!" Even Jake had to admit that Will had had to think fast to get out of that one. He was going to miss them all.

Jake frowned; miss them all? Why was he thinking like that? All he had to do was find out how to destroy the dagger and mirror and do it and then he could return to Marbarden and settle down with Angelika, if she would have him.

The girl watched as she approached his table with the food. She had been watching the man since he sat down and had seen a smile and a frown cross his face in the last minute, now he seem lost in thought.

"Excuse me, Sir. I've brought your food."

"Oh, sorry," replied Jake as he hastily moved his things to make room for the tray. As he looked up their eyes met and the girl saw gentle brown eyes, behind the glasses, and a gaze that was touched with sadness. "Thank you," he added as the girl turned to go.

Are you a writer? She asked, indicating the book on the table.

"I just write the odd story, there not very good though."

"Oh, I'll bet their better than you think!"

"My brother doesn't think so, he's told me often enough!"

"Well, why don't you read me one and I can judge it for myself."

"Christina, don't you have some work you should be doing?" came a voice from behind the bar.

"I'm coming," she called back "Oh well, it looks like the story is going to have to wait." She looked enquiringly at Jake.

"My name is Jake."

"Enjoy your food, Jake." Then she headed back towards the bar.

Jake returned his book to his bag and began to eat. When he had finished he cleared up the dirty dishes and returned them to Christina at the bar.

"Thanks for food, it was delicious."

"Your welcome." Jake headed for the door. "Come back soon Jake, you owe me a story, remember!"

"He owes you more than that," said the barman, "he owes the price of his meal as well, which I'm taking out of your wages!"

"I know," replied Christina and she followed Jake through the door. She caught up with him by a horse.

"Jake?" He turned.

"Christina?" Then a look of horror crossed his face. "You have to believe me. I wasn't trying to leave without paying! I usually travel with my brother and he looks after the money, he's better with that kind of thing. How much do I owe you?" Jake searched through his pockets looking for money.

"That's okay Jake; you can pay me when you return with my story," suddenly she placed a small kiss on Jake's cheek. "Be careful, Jake."

Jake didn't reply. He just turned bright red and got on his horse.

"Come on Pepper, we should be gone by now," he said to the horse. "Christina, thanks again for the food… and the kiss." Then he urged Pepper into a trot and left Malsburg.

As Christina watched him go she felt a sudden shiver pass down her spine "Be careful, Jake," she whispered.

---

"What do you mean? " Do I trust him with his own"?" Will stared at the woman. "Jake may live in his own world sometimes, but his isn't stupid!"

"I know your brother isn't stupid; but is there nothing you can think of that might make him leave this world for another?"

"Leave this world for another?" The woman's words were starting to scare Will. Jake would never do something like that. He had Angelika to come back to, and he would never leave him alone.

"Jake would never kill himself!" he responded.

"There are worse things than death, Wilhelm Grimm. If you can think of a reason why Jake might be willing to give up his place in the world, I'll be in the forest." She turned and walked away.

Will was used to being in control of any situation he was in, but since they had come to Marbarden he had seen his control slowly slip away as his ideas about how the world should be were turned on their head. He had nearly been burnt alive, seen Jake come out from his book and become a hero and he had sacrificed himself to break a magic spell! This just wasn't right, he needed to get back to place where wolves weren't men in disguise and horses didn't eat children. He went over and sat down by the well, gave a deep sigh and ran this fingers through his hair.

"Angelika, what is going on?"

"I don't know Will, but from what that woman and Sasha have said I think that Jake is in some sort of danger and we need to find him."

"Sasha, you said that there was something wrong with Jake. Do you have any idea what that might be?"

"No, I can just feel it."

"Don't worry, we'll find Jake and save him. I promise."

"I know."

---

Angelika was heading for what remained of the Queen's tower, she had no desire to see the place ever again, but if there was chance that Jake had returned there she was willing to go. There was obviously some sort of secret in Will and Jake's past that bound them together, there had to be, otherwise why would they have stayed together? They were so different. There had been all the comments about "magic beans" and "they did not work then and they will not work now!" that Will had said when they argued. But she had seen what Jake's belief in the old stories and magic was capable of – she was living proof of that. Also, there was the look she had seen in Jake's eyes when she had woken up in the crypt. There was no mistaking that Jake was in love with her, but was she in love with him? She didn't know she had only met him a few days before. She liked him, he was kind, gentle, intelligent, brave, handsome – what woman didn't dream of meeting someone who was willing to risk death to save her! But so was Will. Will had, in fact died to save her and he was everything that Jake was as well as charming - probably a little too charming. But she had feeling that it was a bit of an act with Will and she had seen genuine fear in his eyes when he thought that the woman had meant that Jake would kill himself. But was she in love with either of them? They had saved her and her sisters and she was more grateful to them than she had been to anyone else in her life. But love? She didn't know and only time would tell if friendship with either of the brothers would develop into something more and there was no reason to suppose that once Jake had been found that they would even remain in the village. Who would blame them if they left and never came back!

Before she knew it she was at the clearing. There were a number of ravens perched in the trees surrounding the remains of the Tower and Angelika gave them a wide berth as she made a brief search, but it was obvious that Jake had not come back. She headed back to where her horse was tethered, intending to return to the village and then follow Will and Cavaldi.

"Hello, Angelika," said the woman, as she seemed to materialise out of nowhere.

"Where's Jake and what's the matter with him?" she replied.

"Straight to the point as always. When Jake was a child he made a mistake that had tragic consequences and I fear that he may be about to make another one."

"Can't you give a straight answer?"

"I am doing as much as I can to help. The rest must be up to the three of you. Will knows what Jake did and only he can save him."

Angelika knew that there had once been a path from the clearing that left the forest further along the road towards Malsburg but she wasn't sure if it still existed. When the trees moved around you couldn't rely on any path being there from one day to the next. She knew that she had to catch up with Will and Cavaldi and tell them what the woman had just told her and hopefully Will would be able to work out what danger Jake was in and how to save him. The path opened up before her and she increased her speed as she had the feeling that time was fast running out for them. She never noticed that the path was straighter then she had remembered it and the she came out of forest far quicker than she should have done. She looked down the road and spotted two riders travelling fast, they had to Will and Cavaldi. She spurred her horse on and followed them.

---

Jake had been travelling all day and, as night had started to fall, he was beginning to have thoughts about where he was going to sleep tonight. His search for money after his encounter with Christina had not revealed as much as he had hoped. Additional money was another thing he had not thought to bring with him. Will had always looked after the money when they travelled so he had never had to worry about it before. He had used some of it to buy food in a village he had passed through a couple of hours ago, but if it was going to last until he reached the University then he was going to have to spend it wisely and paying for a bed for him and a stable for Pepper when they didn't need to, the night was clear and he could see the moon shining above him, seemed a waste of a valuable resource. Anyway, he could see a barn just ahead and he decided to see what it was like.

The barn clearly had not been used in a few years and there was a hole in the roof at one end, but he found a corner that was dry and relatively clean. So he unpacked his blanket and food and settled down for the night. Pepper stood at the other side of barn giving him a very disdainful look.

"We're roughing it all right? It's not going to rain and we might need the money later. Anyway what have you got to complain about? There's some hay back there, go and enjoy yourself."

The horse then moved to other side of the barn and started to snuffle around. Jake smiled, sometime he felt that the horse was actually going to answer him back despite what Will said. Thinking of Will brought Jake back to reason for his journey. He lit the lamp he had brought with him and removed his book and the bundle from his bag. He put his book to one side and unwrapped the bundle. The dagger felt like a lead weight in his hand and he suddenly found that he couldn't hold it so he left it fall to the ground. He then looked at the mirror, the light from the lamp was reflected in the mirror and Jake could almost see the flicker of the flame in it. As he stared at the reflection of the light he began to feel that he could almost sink into the mirror and leave this world behind him. The light was warm and welcoming and the fact that his own reflection was missing only served to increase his feeling that it wasn't a mirror in his hand but the entrance to another world, one that was ready to welcome Jake with open arms. Suddenly something knocked against Jake's arm and he dropped the mirror, which landed face down next to the dagger.

"Pepper!" snapped Jake, angry that the horse had disturbed him. But Jake now realised that he was hungry and began eat. His book was beside him and he began to turn the pages, there was something loose tucked between them and he pulled it out. "Oh no!" he breathed.

He couldn't believe that he had done it. He had taken the time before he left to write to Will to try to make him understand why he was doing what he was doing and he thought that he had left in their house. But here it was in his book. He couldn't possibly go back and leave it; if Will discovered him he would never let him go again. So he would have to make arrangements for it to be sent to Marbarden at the next village he came to (via Angelika of course), at least now he knew he had the money to sent it!

Suddenly Jake felt that the day had finally caught up with him and he felt a tiredness that seemed to reach into his very bones. The letter would have to wait until tomorrow and he placed it on the cover of his book. He then reached for his blanket and settled down to get some sleep. He called a good night to Pepper and thought one to Will, Angelika, Cavaldi and everyone in Marbarden and then his eyes closed and he was asleep within seconds.

He was standing at the door to the barn staring at the moon that was casting a pale cold light on the area around the barn.

"It's beautiful, isn't Jacob?" came her voice and he turned to look at her.

"Moonlight make everything look magical," he replied to the mirror that was in his hand. The Queen smiled back at him from the mirror and then reached out and gently stroked his cheek.


	8. Chapter 8

8

Will could hear the sound of a horse rapidly approaching and turned to see Angelika. He signalled to Cavaldi and they waited for her to reach them.

"Will, I've seen her."

"Who?"

"The woman who brought Sasha back. She was in the forest. She said that when Jake was younger he had made a mistake that had tragic consequences and that he was about to make another one."

She watched as all the colour drained from Will's face and he swayed slightly in the saddle. "No it can't happen again! Jake, what are you about to do?" his voice almost a whisper.

"Will. What's wrong?"

In a faltering voice Will told them about what had happened to their sister.

"So that's what was behind the argument you had in my house and the "beans" comments you made to Jake?"

"Yes… Oh I was so mad at him when our sister died. If he had only brought the doctor…." Angelika looked at Will and could see tears in his eyes.

"He was a child, Will. He didn't do it on purpose."

"Our sister died because of Jake's belief in magic!" There was genuine anger in Will's voice.

"If you believe that, why did you start the scams with Jake?"

"Because he is the only one I have left and I can't loose him like I've lost everyone else."

"If you can't come to terms with what happened then you will end up driving him away and loose him anyway."

"I know that he didn't do it on purpose, but sometimes his stupid belief in magic blinds him to what is really going on."

"Magic is REAL Will. After what happened in the forest, how can you doubt that?"

"I don't know what I believe anymore. All I know is that I have to find Jake before anyone else get hurts." Will spurred his horse on and left Angelika and Cavaldi behind.

Angelika and Cavaldi stared at each other. "We can't just let 'im go alone," said Cavaldi.

They rode on until they arrived at Malsburg.

"I suppose that I had better have a look around and see if anyone has seen Jake."

"If you don't mind I won't come in with you," said Cavaldi "Delatombe made 'imself very conspicuous in there and I was usually at 'is side."

"Making yourself useful?" asked Will.

"Grimmy, it was better to be at 'is side than in 'is sights, as you found out," replied the ex-torturer.

"Will, will you be all right in there? You are still wanted by the French."

"Jake and I kept a rather low profile the last time we were here, Angelika. Cavaldi and the French were rather insistent on it. We'll meet you back here in a couple of hours." Will and Angelika entered the town.

Two hours passed without finding any information on Jake.

"Anything?" asked Cavaldi.

"Nothing, it's like Jake has just disappeared," replied Will.

"Will, we'll find him. But it's getting late and we need to eat. I saw a tavern on the way here." They followed Angelika to the tavern.

""The Queen's Arms", a little too appropriate don't you think?" said Will as they entered. He noticed that there was a table by the window and went to it. Angelika went to the bar to get drinks and order the food. The woman behind the bar seemed to be having an argument.

"You stupid girl, he is never coming back. You fell for his handsome face and he conned you."

"He'll come back, he promised me a story. I know he's the kind that keeps his promises."

"Cristina, he promised you a story! How naïve can you be?"

That drew Angelika's attention.

"Excuse me, sorry to interrupt, but I'm looking for a friend of mine and I think you might have met him. He's tall, dark, short hair, beard, glasses, a little on the quiet side. His name is Jake?"

"You see, looks like he's fooled another one!"

"Yes, he was here this morning."

Angelika breathed a sigh of relief. "We're looking for him," she indicated the table where Will and Cavaldi were sat, "would you mind coming over and telling us what happened. We're anxious to find him and, so far, you're the only person we've met that has seen Jake since he left."

"Certainly, Jake is very sweet, but I have a feeling that he might be in trouble."

This worried Angelika but she returned to table with Cristina and introduced her companions.

"Cristina, I'm Angelika, this is Cavaldi and Jake's brother, Will."

"You've seen Jake?" asked Will, "where, when, was he all right, did he say where he was going?"

"I saw him this morning, he was sat right where you are."

"Yes, Jake would choose a table by the window. He liked the light to write by."

Cristina went on the recount what had occurred earlier that day.

"I can assure that Jake didn't mean to forget to pay. When we travel I usually deal with the money, Jake just wouldn't think about that side of things. How much did he owe you?" asked Will as he reached for his money.

"Don't bother about that," replied Cristina, "Just find him. I have a feeling that he is heading for trouble."

---

Will paced the room. He didn't want to be there. Everyone he met was telling him that Jake was in trouble and here they all were, preparing to get a restful night's sleep! He walked over to the window and stared at the moon that was rising.

"Will, we'll find Jake tomorrow I'm sure of it," Angelika came to join him at the window. "Cristina told us which road he was taking and he'll have stopped for the night as well."

She put her hand on his shoulder, Will turned to look at her, and she smiled at him.

"Good night to both of you," she said and then returned to her room.

"I hope you don't mind sharing, Grimmy – I'm afraid that I snore."

"No problem. I'm used to sharing with Jake and he talks in his sleep," replied Will with a sad smile. "Jake loves the moon. He used to spend hours just staring at it when he was younger, never could work out why." Will turned from the window and made his way to the bed. He lay down and was asleep within seconds.

"Well…what's your answer?"

"I need time to think about it, Will."

"What's to think about? With your brains and my talent we'll make it work. If you think about it we'll be helping people. We'll be getting rid of things that scare them." Will had been to see Jake a couple of times about the possibility of them joining forces to "rid the land of evil enchantments".

Will was sat on the bed in Jake's room at the university. He glanced around noting, the shelves full of books, the wardrobe, the chest of draws, washstand and finally the overflowing desk at which his brother was sat. He looked at Jake. He still had the earnest face, and glasses that covered the same brown eyes, but the long hair was gone, replace by cropped hair and a sort of beard! Still, it wasn't Jake's looks that he needed it was his knowledge of folk tales if they were going to make his plan work.

He shifted his gaze to the table beside the bed and the book that lay there. "You still have this?" Will picked it up and stated to flick through it. If was full of Jake's flowing handwriting. Their mother had given Jake the book shortly before he left.

"Yes," replied Jake and he removed the book from his brother's hands and placed it on the desk behind him. Out of harms way.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" asked Will, trying another tack to get through to his brother. He didn't want to admit it, but without Jake his whole plan wouldn't work.

"I'm looking at folk tales from around Germany and other countries to see if there is any traits that are common in them."

"Sounds riveting. But you must know a lot of the stories by now."

"One or two. In fact I've even written my own interpretation of a couple of them."

"Really, I'd like to read one." As he said it Will realised that he did want to read Jake's stories.

"They're full of myth and magic. Not really what you like."

"Besides, it's been a while since we spent any time together. We could be the Brothers Grimm!" said Will with a smile, changing the subject again. They would need a memorable name if the business became successful. He looked at his brother and caught a strange look in his eyes; it was almost like hope.

"Let me think about it, Will."

Will left Jake alone to think, but he knew that he had already won the argument and that Jake would be coming with him.

Will woke and stared at the ceiling. "Where are you Jake?" he whispered to the dark.

---

Jake stood looking at his refection in the mirror. He saw rather than felt her arms as they wrapped themselves around him and he turned to meet her lips. He felt the world falling away and the return of the peace that he had felt before. He didn't want it to end this time. But it did as the Queen pulled away.

"Hello, my tortured prince. Have you thought about my question?"

"What question?"

"Your heart's true desire."

"You already know that."

"Then all you have to do is ask and it can be yours."

With reluctance Jake turned away from the Queen and found his eyes drawn again toward the moon. He stared at it, deep in thought.

"You know you don't belong to this world Jacob, you never did. You live a life that is not your own and as long as you do, you will be a burden to all those who know you and you will never find peace. He will be better off without you."

"Will." breathed Jake.

"He died because of you. All those villagers lost their life savings because of you. Hidlick and Bunst died because of you."

"My sister died because of me."

"Trust me, and everything can be as it should have been."

"You can bring her back?"

The Queen just smiled at Jake as she placed something into his hand. He looked down and saw the dagger; it felt good in his hand. It was right that it should be there. A horse whinnied in the background and for a moment Jake was aware of his surroundings and his inner voice that was telling him stop. But he was alone and too tired to fight anymore. He just wanted the guilt to stop. He returned his gaze to moon.

"Yes," he said.

"My sweet new prince," replied the Queen as her hand closed over Jake's and, as their lips met, he felt a slight tingling sensation in his chest and then the peace that he had been seeking for fifteen years washed over him and took everything away.

---

Something had woken Cavaldi, but he wasn't sure what. He turned over closing his eyes, but there was a disturbing feeling to the room. He glanced over that Will's bed and found it empty. More awake now he scanned the room looking for Will and found him stood by the open window staring at the moon.

"Grimmy, can't you sleep my friend?" There was no response from Will. Cavaldi went to him. Will was staring at the moon. Cavaldi touched him on the shoulder, but again there was no response. He moved his had in front of Will's eyes but they remained locked on the moon. Cavaldi left the room and knocked on Angelika's door.

"Angelika. Come, 'e seems to be in a trance."

"What?"

"Just come and look at 'im," with that Cavaldi headed back to the other room. Angelika followed him. She found Will standing by the window staring at the moon with Cavaldi at his side.

"Will, are you all right?" she asked as he went towards him. He did not reply. But he did slowly turn to face them. With shock Angelika realised that there were tears flowing down his cheeks.

"Jake…stop." he whispered. A look of pure agony crossed his face. Angelika had started to reach for him when his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed to the floor.


	9. Chapter 9

9

Sunlight hitting Will's eyes roused him from sleep, which wasn't what he wanted at all. "Go away, and let me sleep!" he yelled and pulled the covers back over his head.

"Will, you have to get up. I told Angelika we would be at her house by noon."

"Then you go, find out what she wants and come back and tell me."

Suddenly the covers were ripped out of his hands and he was staring into the pair of intense brown eyes.

"Lotte, go away!" He knew that it was no use. He would have to get up and go with his sister, but he would get his own back on her later. Half an hour later they were walking towards Angelika's house.

"Good morning, Fraulein Krauss. What can we do for you?" asked Will with a grin.

"I think you'll find that it isn't morning any more," she replied, kissing Will on the cheek as he and Lotte entered the house.

"Will, the villagers need to know what's going to happen next."

When Will and Lotte had been forced by the French to come to Marbarden to search for the missing girls, along with Delatombe's lackey Cavaldi, and they had found themselves confronted by what turned out to be real magic! But Lotte's knowledge of the old folks tales and Angelika's knowledge of history of the Queen had enabled them to work out that if they prevented the Queen from taking all twelve children by the time of the Blood Moon (or the eclipse that was due shortly) then the spell would fail and the children who had been taken so far, including Angelika's two sisters, would be returned.

So they moved all the children to Malsburg. On the night of the Blood Moon screams were heard coming from the tower and in the morning there was not a raven to be seen. A search party was raised to look for the missing girls who were found in the open crypts that surrounded the tower. They woke as soon as they were touched. All that remained was a very happy reunion with their parents and a party that went on all night.

So that got the French and Cavaldi off their backs, and as there was not another Blood Moon that would fit the specifics of the spell for eternal youth for a number of centuries, the Queen was trapped in tower for the foreseeable future.

Now it was time to think about the future.

"Well," said Lotte "as far as the Queen is concerned; with the failure of her spell she can't regain her youth, so she is alive up in the tower but she hasn't the physical strength to leave it. As long as a watch is kept on the tower I can't see that there is any need abandon Marbarden. In fact, it would probably a good idea to have people around to stop anything too strange happening in the forest."

"Like what?" asked Angelika. Will also looked enquiringly at his sister.

"There's a lot of magic still around in the forest and that could attract some unwelcome attention."

"From whom?" asked Will, definitely not liking the sound of this.

"There are certain kinds of people who are attracted to magic for various reasons. It might be possible for the Queen to influence some of these people."

"To create someone to serve her?"

"That might be possible, yes, in an extreme case. But if there are people in Marbarden then this could be stopped."

"Given that information, it is going to be extremely hard to get anyone to stay here," said Angelika.

"Perhaps we shouldn't mention the possessed people, then?" suggest Will. He had no intention of this turning into a "we have to stay to make sure nothing else happens" situation. He wanted to be gone from this place as soon as possible, they had other "evil spirits" to defeat and what happened in Marbarden could only increase their reputation.

A village meeting was called for the next day. Lotte explained to the villagers that the Queen was trapped in the tower and that there was no threat to the village.

"Will that always be so?" asked Gregor. Will and Lotte exchanged looks.

"There will not be a Blood Moon that will enable to the Queen to attempt the spell again for a number of centuries." replied Lotte.

"But will she be able to influence other things, such as the trees and animals of the forest?" There had been rumours that there was a wolf in the forest that had done the Queens bidding, including the kidnapping of the children.

"I'm not a expert in dark magic," replied Lotte, "but there were others at the University who specialised in this area and I could contact one of them for help. I think they might be interested in a case of authenticated magic!"

So it was agreed that Lotte would contact the University to asked for help on preventing the Queen's influence from spreading again. While the village waited for the response to their request Will and Lotte were asked to stay.

"It might be nice to have a real rest for once, and you could spend the time getting to know Angelika a little better."

"She's not my type."

"No. She's intelligent, self reliant, and oblivious to your charms. I would have thought you would have seen that as a challenge."

"She's just not my type. I don't know why, but I feel that she's a friend more than anything else."

"Has the great Wilhelm Grimm finally met his match?" Lotte was used the dealing with the results of Will's conquests. More than once they had had to leave a village quickly and quietly after Will had made a drunken proposal.

Will just left the room and went outside. Lotte smiled to herself. She had never seen Will act like this towards a woman, usually he was all charm and used the "science" of their "weapons" to impress them. Perhaps she was the one? She had a letter to write and went to her bag to get the necessary. As she pulled out her book, to get to spare paper she always carried with her, a small bundle came out with it and started to fall. She moved quickly and caught it before it hit the floor. She breathed a sigh of relief, Will would get very upset if anything happened to what was in the bundle.

She quickly composed the letter, addressing it her old professor at the University who was sure to be able to find them someone suitable. Now all that was left was for the next person who went to Malsburg to take it with them and get it sent. She went in search of her brother.

---

Jacob Grimm's chest slowly rose and fell as he lay on the bed. No worry lines showed on his brow and the bloom of perfect health shone from his cheeks. He slept the peaceful sleep of those who have nothing in their lives to concern them.

She watched him from the window, her eyes drifted from his face to the rest of his sleeping form. From the finest linen shirt that covered the slowly rising and falling chest and the mark of what he was, to the silk waistcoat that covered the shirt and on to the tailored trousers, finally ending with the highly polished leather boots. He was most definitely the perfectly dressed prince and a suitable consort for her , who remain at her side forever. She walked towards the bed and awoke him with a kiss.

"Wake me perfect prince…and come to your Queen."

Jake's eyes opened and beheld the woman that he would serve until his last breath. He rose from the bed and knelt before her. "How may I serve my Queen?"

The Queen's laughter was music to his ears. She took his hands and he rose to meet her gaze, his brown eyes shone with love and adoration for her. "My perfect prince…come, I have a task for you." And she led him back to the window where she explained what she wanted to him to do.

---

"Letter's done," called Lotte as she entered the room, "we just need whoever is next going to Malsburg to take it with them."

"I'll take it tomorrow. I have other business that I can do at the same time," offered Gregor.

"Thanks." replied Lotte and handed him the letter. She crossed the room to her brother "Have you misplaced something?" she asked quietly as she showed him a small bundle. Will's hand quickly went to his inside pocket, discovered that something was indeed missing, a look of dismay crossing his face as he did so, and then he placed the bundle back in his pocket. Lotte smiled and laid her hand briefly on his shoulder.

Angelika wondered what was in the bundle to cause the look that had crossed Will's face, but decided that it would be better to ask about it at another time.

Gregor sent the letter from Malsburg the next day, now all they had to do was to wait for the reply. Lotte and Will made themselves comfortable in the house that the villagers had provided for them. "You do realise this is the closest to a home we have had for years," remarked Lotte as she arranged her things. "makes a nice change to have somewhere to call home."

"Are you trying to tell me that you want to settle down?"

"Will, we've been doing this long enough. I always planned to go back to my studies, you know that. I just agreed to help you until you had enough money."

Will realised that Lotte was right. It had started out a quick and easy way to make money and was never intended to be anything permanent. But the longer they continued the more he found that he enjoyed it. It was good to have Lotte around, he felt like he had a family again and he didn't want that to end.

"If you want to stop. You can. I can always find something else to do, I have the money now."

"Oh Will…" she crossed the room and put her arms around her brother "… I miss him too. But he wouldn't want us to do this." She put her hand and Will's cheek and he turned to face her. "Jake believed in magic. He didn't need to find proof. We both remember him by doing what we think is right. I study the stories that he loved…"

"Whilst I try to find real magic to prove that Jake's belief was justified?"

"I would say that you did, considering what has happened here. You've proved that magic is real Wilhelm Grimm!" and she gave him a kiss on the cheek. Will smiled.

"What happened to Jake was an accident, you know that."

"I know, but it was still my dare. He wouldn't have tried if it hadn't been for that." Lotte knew that they had all done what they could, including Will, after Jake's accident. But he had still died. Lotte put her arms around him again and soon felt the wetness of Will's tears soaking her clothes.


	10. Chapter 10

10

The sun was shining, the sky was blue and the ravens followed at a distance, a reminder that she was watching over him and would keep him from harm. He would be approaching the village soon and then he in return would be able to keep her from harm.

Sasha was sat by the gateway to the village and watched the young man approach on his horse. He was tall, had short dark hair and scruffy kind of beard. But he was dressed smartly and carried a bag with him. He must by the man from the University she decided.

"Hello," she said as he approached.

"Hello," he replied as he dismounted and came towards her. He had deep brown eyes and Sasha decided that she liked him. "I'm looking for someone in charge. Can you help me?"

"We had better go and find my father. My name is Sasha."

"Hello Sasha, I'm Carl." She took his hand and they went to find her father.

Will glanced over his shoulder and watched as Sasha approached her house, accompanied by a stranger leading a black horse. He wondered who the stranger could be; it was far too soon for him to come in response to Lotte's letter so what did he want? Will decided to go and find out. He arrived just as Sasha was making the introductions.

"Papa…this is Carl. He's come from the University to help and Will and Lotte."

The man glanced at Sasha and looked slightly embarrassed. "I'm sorry there seems to have been some misunderstanding here. I'm not from the University I'm afraid."

"Then who are you and what do you want here?" All three of them turned as Will came up to them. Both men regarded each other. There something familiar about the man was facing him, had they met before? He felt wrong somehow, his face didn't seem to fit with the clothes. Will knew that he was going to trouble.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean there to be a misunderstanding. My name is Carl Schmidt and I don't represent any university. I heard the rumours that are circulating about the village and I came to see if they were true."

"What rumours?" asked Will. He was determined to get as much information out of this man as he could.

"Strange disappearances, moving trees, a wolf the is not what it seems, screams coming from a tower in the middle of the forest … " A smile spread across Carl's face as he spoke.

"And what do you think caused these things?" asked Will. "Magic?"

"Why not! There are more things in heaven and earth …"

"…than are dreamt of in your philosophy. I hope I got the quote right." The group turned to see Lotte and Angelika coming to join them.

"As far as I remember you did, but I'm not a Shakespeare scholar, I'm afraid. I'm more interested in tales that are closer to home. My name is Carl Schmidt and I'm very pleased to meet you, Fraulein." He extended his hand to Lotte.

"Charlotte Grimm, but you can call me Lotte," and she shook hands with the newcomer. He felt a shock pass through him that took his breath away and all he could do was stare at her as she continued the introductions. "Sasha, you've already met; Gregor, her father; Angelika and the rude one is Will, my brother."

He continued to stare at Lotte. There was something about her that almost frightened him. He could see now why these people were a threat to his Queen, but he was here to protect her.

"What can we do help you, Herr Schmidt?" Will's questioned brought him back to reality.

"I collect folk tales and stories of magic, one day I hope to write a book and I'd like to include the story from Marbarden."

"Then you believe in magic?"

"I have seen and heard enough to make me believe," he replied with a strange smile.

"Then maybe we could swap some stories!" Lotte replied. "Come, my books are at my house and we have a stable for your horse." She led the way through the village.

As he watched Carl follow his sister Will came across the Angelika.

"There something about him that I don't trust. I think I might have met him before, but I'm not sure where. I think we need to keep an eye on him."

"There is definitely something strange about him," agreed Angelika and they followed them to the house.

Lotte and Carl spent the afternoon swapping stories that they had collected over the years. His enthusiasm for the subject was contagious and they were soon lost in the subtleties of folklore. It gave Lotte a chance to study him as they talked. She had never met anyone that shared her passion the way that he did and the more they talked the more she grew to like him.

Will kept an eye on them throughout the afternoon and the more he saw of Carl the more his feelings of unease grew. He knew there was something that was just simply wrong about him and he was determined to find out what. As he entered the house Carl was glancing through one of Lotte's books.

"You two seem to be enjoying yourself," he said as he came towards them.

Yes, I've discovered that your sister and I have more in common than I thought," replied Carl "I'm learning a lot from her."

"How did you become interested in the subject? I mean, people usually know their local stories but they don't have much interest beyond that."

"Well… my father gave me a book when I was a child and it grew from there. I found myself interested in finding out if there was anything behind the tales… and here I am."

Will suddenly found himself taking an interest in the book in Carl's hand. It was an old and battered book with a stylised G on the front. He walked over and quietly removed the book from Carl's hands and placed it on the table at the other side of the room.

"Will! There was no reason to do that." Lotte rose and went towards her brother.

"You can show him all your books, Lotte I've no problem with that. But not Jake's."

"Will, Carl asked how I became interested in folklore and Jake was a major part of it."

"I know. I was there. Remember? But that still doesn't mean that he needs to see the book." And with that he took the book and left the room. He stared at the book. He remembered the trouble and he and Jake had been in when their father discovered that they had used almost a whole stick of sealing wax to put the G on the front of the book. He had gone on about how much the wax cost. It wasn't until later that he realised that their father was probably more upset about the fact that they could have set the house on fire with the wood that they had used to bring a light to melt the wax! He smiled as he remembered how Jake had come to his defence when his father had shouted saying that it was his idea to put it on his book, when in fact it had been Will's, and that he liked it, it made the book look special and it was for his special stories. He had kept it up until his father had started to smile and agreed that it did make the book look special. Their father had never been able to stay mad at Jake for long and the brothers had used this to their advantage many times.

Will reached into his pocket and pulled out the bundle. He slowly unwrapped it reveal a pair of glasses. He used the cloth to gently clean the lenses and then slowly rewrapped them. Although Jake had been dead for over ten years Will seemed to miss him more each day and the recent events in Marbarden had only reinforced this. Jake would have been astounded and thrilled by what had happened, they had proved that magic existed and Will would have given almost anything to have had Jake there to see it. Now this man had turned up and Lotte was showing him all their secrets, including Jake's book. Will didn't care how much he shared Lotte's passion for folklore he had no right to see Jake's book, it belong to them and no one else.

"I'm very sorry about the way my brother reacted," Lotte returned her gaze to Carl after Will had left. "He has a tendency to over react where Jake is concerned. He was our younger brother and the one who began our interest in folklore and magic. He died in an accident a few years ago." She had no idea why she was telling him all this, usually she never discussed Jake with anyone but Will.

"So the stories are to honour his memory?"

Lotte had never thought of what she did this way and it seemed so obvious now that Carl had mentioned it. If she ever did publish her stories she would dedicate them Jake, she decided.

"Look, it's late I should be going." Carl rose from the table and walked towards the door.

"Do you have anywhere to stay for the night? You won't get back to Malsburg until well after dark and the forest is not the safest place to be at night," asked Lotte.

"I have lodgings just beyond the forest."

"I didn't know there was anyone else before you got the Malsburg."

"There are a few people who live near the forest, and it's not actually that close to Malsburg. I've been around here for a few days now and have discovered some short cuts so I should be there before nightfall. But I will be careful in the forest, I promise." Carl leant towards Lotte and for a second or two she thought that he was going to kiss her, but he just turned and walked out of the door. They collected his horse from the stable and Lotte accompanied him to the edge of the village and watched him until he was out of sight.

He rode until he was out of sight of the village and the forest had closed in both sides of the road. He looked to his right and saw a raven perched in the branches of a tree with a path beneath it, he was sure it hadn't been there a few moments ago. He smiled and took the path. He wandered deeper and deeper into the forest, with the raven always before him as if leading him. Eventually he came to pool surrounded by trees, he left the horse and walked towards it. The raven settled on a branch that overhung the pool and dropped something into the pool. The ripples fanned out across the water, he felt his eyes drawn towards them and he gazed into the pool.

He saw himself reflected in the water. He slowly undid the buttons of his waistcoat and then the buttons of his shirt. He pulled back the shirt and underwear to reveal the black circle of metal that covered his heart, as he watched it seemed to tremble with each beat of his heart. He felt himself shudder and closed his eyes as if to shut out the vision before him and let his chin fall to his chest.

"Jacob."

He gazed again into the water and saw a hand now covered the dagger hilt and felt the warmth of the fingers on his chest. He looked to his right but there was no one beside him.

"Jacob."

He looked again into the water and she was there, his Queen, his love. She brought her lips to his and peace filled his mind again. When he opened his eyes he was back in the tower.

"Welcome back, my sweet prince. Did you do what I asked?"

"Yes, my Queen."

"Very good. Come here." Jake approached the Queen. "Sit." Jake lowered himself onto the bed beside her. He leaned into the hand that she slid down his cheek and she slowly lowered her lips to his ear.

"Sleep." She whispered and as his eyes closed Jake fell back onto the bed and into a deep and dreamless sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

11

Lotte found it hard to believe that Carl had now been coming to see her for over a week. He arrived early in the day, they spent their time discussing folklore and stories but, despite her requests, he wouldn't stay in the village at night. He claimed that it would be rude to his host, who had gone to considerable trouble, not to return to his lodgings.

He had arrived as usual that day and they had been discussing the story of a witch that Carl had heard about in the town of Karlstadt. Lotte noticed that he seemed distracted and had dark rings under his eyes.

"Are you feeling all right? You seem a little distracted today."

"It's nothing, I'm just not sleeping very well…actually there was something that I wanted to ask you, but I'm not sure if you are going to like it."

"Well, asking is the only way to find out."

"Would you take me to the tower? I still want to include the story of Marbarden in my book and to do that I really should see the Queen's tower."

Lotte looked at him, she wasn't sure that she wanted to return to the tower. But the Queen remained trapped in the tower and there had been no reports of the trees moving since the night of the Blood Moon, so there seemed very little to fear.

"As long as we are careful and don't stay too long, I can't see it being a problem. Just let me get a few things."

A short time later they collected their horses, left the village and took the path that led to the Queen's tower. The day was warm and still and it was actually quite pleasant to ride in the forest. Lotte almost couldn't believe the feelings of evil and dread that she had felt when they had first ventured into the forest. Also the pleasant company helped she thought as she glanced back at Carl as he rode as few paces behind her. He seemed totally absorbed by the forest and was eagerly looking at the trees all around them.

"So you actually saw them move!"

"Yes. When Angelika first showed us the Queen's tower the trees were moving so much that they practically chased us out of the forest."

"Then how did you ever the defeat the Queen?"

"Angelika already knew the story of the Queen and her search for the spells for eternal life and eternal youth and there are some caves in a different part of the forest that have old pictures in them that include the tower, the crypts that encircled it and the Blood Moon."

"Of course. A Blood Moon is a good catalyst for spells, the twelve crypts would mean that she had youth for each month of year and the circle would give her an eternal cycle. Clever. But she didn't count of you being as clever as her."

"Actually it was Will who figured it out. Despite what you might think he actually knows quite a lot about magic. He's been searching for proof of real magic so long now, but we usually came across fakes and frauds. He probably knows enough about them now to produce a good fraud himself if he wanted to!"

As they had talked the trees had started to thin out and they had reached the tower. They dismounted, tethered their horses and entered the clearing.

"Oh my Lord!" exclaimed Carl as he saw the tower rising above the clearing surrounded by the ruins of the once prosperous town. "How long has this been here?"

"According to Angelika, over five hundred years." Lotte couldn't help but smile as she looked at Carl. He was staring at the tower with a childlike look of awe and amazement on his face and Lotte was again filled with a feeling of familiarity.

"It there anyway into the tower?" he asked.

"Not that anyone has been able to find, but personally I think that is for the best. If we can't get in then the Queen can't get out."

"You hope!" he added with a strange smile on his face. He slowly circled the tower staring at it all the time until he came to the pool that bordered the clearing. Here he stopped and started staring into the water.

Intrigued by what he might be looking at Lotte joined him and stared into the water. She saw only Carl and herself reflected in the water. She turned to look at Carl only to find him looking at her.

"This is a place full of magic, you never know what you might see in the water. Look again."

She looked again and saw a raven reflected in the water. As she watched something fell from its beak that sent ripples across the pool. Suddenly the air around her seemed to thicken and she had difficulty catching her breath. She reached out towards Carl to steady herself and felt a sharp pain in her finger; she looked at him and saw that he had cut her finger with a knife. She watched a drop of blood fall from her finger into the water, it dissolved instantly and she felt her body grow heavy, too heavy for her to support. She knew that she had to stop herself falling into the pool or she would drown, but she no longer had the strength to save herself. The only thing that was stopping her falling was the fact that Carl still held her arm.

"Carl, help me." Her voice was no more than a whisper and Carl did not respond.

"Charlotte…Charlotte, come to me." The voice was soft and comforting and drew her gaze back the pool. As she watched a woman appeared beside Carl and reached out and took her hand. Lotte felt the warmth of the touch pass through her body and she knew she would be safe, as safe and happy as if she were in her mother's arms again. She smiled at the woman.

"Charlotte, my child come and join me…and Jacob."

"Jacob…Jacob is dead." Lotte was very confused. How could Jacob be here? But she knew that the woman would not lie to her.

"No, my child I sent him to find you and bring you here to me, so the two of you could be together again. You missed him so much that I wanted to reunite you." As she spoke these words the image of Carl began to change. His face did not change, but his clothes became less perfect, there was a button missing from his waistcoat and his coat showed signs of wear and finally a pair of metal rimmed eyeglasses appear on his face. Lotte stared at him and knew beyond doubt that this was Jacob. The woman turned towards him, smiled and kissed him.

"My Queen." The voice was at her side and she turned to look at Carl. But Carl was no longer there. Instead she was stood next to the flesh and blood counterpart of the reflection.

"Oh Jacob…my little Jake." She felt tears flowing down her cheeks. He turned to face her and she reached out to touch a face that she had not touched in years. As she removed her arm from Carl/Jacob's grasp to reach for him she felt herself begin to fall towards the water. She wasn't scared; she was falling into softness that wouldn't harm her. She was going to be with Jacob and would be safe and sound with him. Drowning was such a small price to pay for such happiness. Then eyes began to close, the world faded from her senses and she let herself fall into blackness.

What she did not hear was a cry of "No!" from her side and as she fell towards the water she was caught and gently laid on the soft grass next to the pool.

He checked to see if she was breathing and had a pulse and was rewarded by finding both. He took off his jacket and folded it into a pillow and then lifted and placed it under her head, gently smoothing out her dark hair as he did so. He smiled at the sleeping form. He couldn't believe what he was looking at, he was looking at his dream come true and he would do anything to keep her safe. She was clever and talented and as much a match for his brother as she had always been. But she had grown into such a beautiful woman that it almost took his breath away and it saddened him to think that he had taken that away from her. But he needed to get her away from here; there would be price to pay for what he had done.

Ripples began to spread out across the water and soon it looked like the pool was boiling. He rose and stared into the water. A look of hatred shone in her eyes.

"Jacob, I do not like to be disobeyed. I would hate to have to punish you, but I will if I must."

"But, my Queen I only seek to serve you better by this. If she dies you will cause him grief, but has known grief before. If he thinks that she is sick there will be nothing that he won't do to find a cure for her and I can bring them both to you."

"I see my perfect prince has returned to me."

He gazed at his reflection and saw that he was again his immaculate self. He smiled "I live only to serve my Queen."

She reached forward and whispered into his ear. "But I still have to punish you for your disobedience." She moved her hand to the dagger in his chest and she withdrew it slightly. A pain like he had never known crossed his chest. He looked down to see blood soaking the front of his shirt, then he fell to ground next to Lotte and knew nothing more.

When he awoke it was starting to get dark, he slowly rose and looked into the pool. He remembered there being pain and blood on his shirt but his reflection showed none there now. He had disobeyed his Queen and deserved to be punished.

He looked down at Lotte as she lay on the ground. She would sleep until he needed her to wake. He removed his coat from under her head, put it on and then he took her in his arms and carried her to the horses.


	12. Chapter 12

12

"I don't care. They have been gone too long, something must have happened to them! How could you let them go there and not tell me?" Will's voice had risen as he spoke and now he was nearly shouting at Angelika as they stood in her workshop.

"Because you would have stopped them going," replied Angelika. She was trying to keep her voice steady in the face of Will's anger. He had been upset when he had learnt that Lotte and Carl had gone to the tower and had only been placated when Angelika had pointed out that they would be back soon, after all there was actually very little at the tower and Lotte was too sensible to stay there long. But as the day had passed and they had still not returned his anger had steadily risen again.

"Yes, I would have. That forest and tower are dangerous, I thought you would have know that."

"I do. But as you seem not to have noticed, Lotte likes him. She seems to be happier when he is around and she looks forward to his visits. They may have other reasons for not coming back so soon."

Will stared at her. "You think that she wants to spend time with him?"

"What's so wrong with her finding someone she likes and settling down? She can't follow you around Germany all her life!"

"But him!"

"If she likes him and he shares her passion what does it matter that you don't particularly like him? It's the fact that Lotte likes him that counts."

Will had simply never thought of Lotte meeting someone and settling down. It wasn't that he didn't like Carl, he didn't know enough about him to decided whether he liked him or not, and that was what concerned him. When he thought about it he actually like the idea of a few little Gimms running around, maybe one of them would be like Jake and he would get to see what his brother might have been like had he grown to be a man.

"I'm sorry Angelika. I'm just concerned for Lotte, she is the only family that I have, and I know I can be overprotective at times. But I am still going to find them, it's getting late and being alone at night in that forest is something I wouldn't advise for anyone."

"Then I'm coming with you."

"Thanks." And he smiled at her.

"You know, you're actually quite handsome when you smile."

"Really, no one has ever called me handsome. I'll have to remember that for the future!"

Angelika rolled her eyes at Will and then followed him to the stables to get their horses.

They hadn't been riding for very long when they became aware that there was someone coming towards them and finally Carl's horse came into view slowly walking towards them. Carl was riding with Lotte in front of him and her head was resting on his shoulder as if she was sleeping. Will immediately spurred his horse forward.

"Lotte!" He cried as he came level with Carl's horse. He reached out and gentle touched her but her eyes remained closed and she did not stir.

"What have you done to her!" he demanded.

"Will. I'm sorry I don't know what happened. We were looking at the tower and she was explaining how you defeated the Queen when we heard a sound coming from the pool in the edge of the clearing and we went to see what it was. The next thing I remember I was waking up in the clearing and she was beside me. I've tried to wake her but nothing has worked! I'm sorry, this is all my fault! If I hadn't asked her to take me there this wouldn't have happened."

But Will wasn't listening to him. All he was concerned about was Lotte, he just wanted her to respond to him.

"Lotte, its Will. Can you hear me? Please…just give me a sign that you can hear me!" All the time he was gently stroking her hair. He continued to do this until Angelika stopped him.

"Will we need to get her back to the village. Come on, we aren't going help her here."

"You're right. I need to get her back and we can send for a doctor." He reached toward Lotte to take her from Carl.

"No, Will. Lotte has come this far safely with Carl and he'll get her the rest of the way as well. We don't know what's wrong with her and the quicker we can get her back to the village the better. Will, you know what I'm saying makes sense, so let him take her."

"But she is my sister and I need to protect her!" Angelika could see the anguish and fear in Will's eyes and knew she needed to get through to him.

"Look, Will. We need to get back to the village." She gently took the reins to Will's horse and turned it back towards the Marbarden and then they all started back.

"Carl," she called back to him, "are you okay?" After all what had struck down Lotte had also effected him and she didn't know what they would do if he passed out again.

"I'll make it, don't worry about me." But there was a tiredness in his voice that Angelika didn't like. She led them back to the village and to her house by the back route, as she didn't think that Will was up to dealing with anyone tonight as he was clearly only concerned with his sister's safety.

They reached the village without any further incident. When they arrived Will quickly dismounted and Carl gently lowered Lotte into her brother's arms and Will then carried her into the house. Fortunately Angelika had left her sisters in Gregor's care before she left and she knew that they would be safe with him and Sasha for the night, so they had the house to themselves. Will carried Lotte into Angelika's bedroom and gently put her to bed. During all that had happened she had not stirred and Will was deeply worried. He turned as Angelika came to join him.

"Thank you for this. I don't know what I would have done without your help, and the loan of your bedroom."

"That's all right. Try not to worry, her breathing and pulse are good and Carl doesn't seem to have suffered any ill effects for his encounter. She'll probably wake up tomorrow morning and be annoyed at you for coming after her!" She smiled at Will, but he didn't return it.

Will didn't mean to be like this; it was just that Jake had been like this before he died. After the accident he had never woken up. He just lay there, sleeping, until his heart stopped. Looking at Lotte brought back too many bad memories.

"Do you know where Carl is? I want to ask him some more questions about what happened."

"I left him looking after the horses, but he said he would come back here afterwards."

"I'm going to find him. I promise that I won't loose my temper with him. I just want to talk to him, he might know something that could help us now that he has had time to think about it."

"Well, don't be too long. I don't want Lotte waking up and you not being here!"

Will went to his sister and kissed on the forehead. "I want you awake when I get back, okay." And he left to find Carl.

When he reached the stables Will could see their horses but there was no sign of Carl.

"Carl, are you there? It's Will." He heard a sound behind him and turned to see a faint light coming from the last stall. Will approached it. He could see Carl crouched in the stall he was staring at something in his hand.

"Carl?" Carl quickly placed what was in his hand in his bag and turned to face Will. His face was flushed and he seemed breathless.

"Will… I didn't hear you come in. How is she?"

"There's been no change. Is there nothing more that you can tell me about what happened? Anything you can remember that help her?"

"Will, I can't think of anything more to tell you. We were looking around the tower and heard a noise from the pool. When we went to look something fell into the water and the air seem to thicken and I couldn't breath. I think that Lotte must have fainted as she was suddenly falling towards the water, I reached for her and the next thing that I remember is waking in the clearing with Lotte next to me. Then I got her on my horse and we were returning when we met you and Angelika."

"That's not quite what you said earlier."

"I'm sorry, I must have been confused. I just wanted to get Lotte back to the village and safety."

"Something falling into the water and the air thickening around you. That sounds like magic! Why didn't you mention that before?"

"I must have just remembered it. But now that Lotte is away from the source she should wake up. I woke up in the clearing so the magic can't have been that powerful."

"Let's hope so."

Carl picked up his bag and moved passed Will, heading toward the stall that housed his horse.

"Where are you going?" Will asked as Carl started to saddle his horse.

"I will be back to see Lotte first thing in the morning, I promise."

"My sister is ill because of you and you are leaving!" Will voice was starting to rise.

"I made a promise to my host to return each night. It would cause considerable problems if I didn't. Besides, it's probably best if Lotte has her family around her while she is sick." Carl moved to lead his horse out of the stables, but Will blocked his way.

"I really don't care what problems it might cause. Lotte was attacked by magic because of you and I don't know when she is going to wake up. But you seem to have come out of the whole experience without a scratch. Why is that?" Will was now shouting at Carl as they stood in the stable.

"Look, Will. I'm sorry about what happened, I really am. I would give anything for Lotte not to be hurt. But I have my books back at my lodgings and there maybe something in them that could help. I will be back first thing in the morning."

"Lotte has a very extensive range of books that you could use. I thought that if you cared for her, even a little bit, you would want to stay until she is well. If I were in your shoes there would be nothing that would make me leave until she was well!"

"Will. I want to stay, but I have to go…"

"I DON'T CARE!" The next thing he knew his fist was connecting with Carl's chin and Will watched as he fell to the floor, his bag falling from his hand as he did son, and lay still

"Carl…Carl, are you all right?" He did not respond.

Will just stood there staring at him. He had never done anything like this before. He crouched down beside Carl and gently touched his face; his fingers came back covered in blood. A shiver ran through him, had he seriously injured the man? He rolled Carl over and discovered that he was unconscious and had a cut on temple; he must have hit his head on something when he fell. The cut was bleeding but didn't look too bad and he could see no other injury. Will looked up at Carl's horse at it stood there calming looking at it's unmoving master, he rose and moved it to another stall. Next, he moved Carl to the pile of new straw at the back of the stall. The cut had already stopped bleeding and his chest rose and fell steadily.

"Look, I'm sorry," he said to the man who was oblivious to his words, "but you did provoke me. Those it looks like you will be spending the night in the village, after all. Let's get you comfortable."

He went to fetch a blanket from the store at the back of stables and covered Carl. He seemed to be sleeping peacefully enough and there was some colour in his cheeks. Will knew he should move him to the house but he couldn't face the questions Carl's condition would raise, not tonight. Anyway, he would be safe enough in the stable until the morning. Will closed the stall and went outside.

He started back towards the house, but stopped. He needed time to think this through. He sat on the edge of the well and ran his fingers through his hair. He had just attacked the man that Angelika thought Lotte might be thinking about having a more lasting relationship with. He hadn't meant to he had just lost control. It seemed everything about the man made him uneasy, it wasn't anything he could put his finger on, but there was something definitely not right about him. He needed to speak to Angelika, she would know how to handle this. To put a "this was all a big brother being over protective, didn't mean to knock you unconscious" view on the whole event, but she was with Lotte he didn't want the first thing she heard when she woke up was him trying to explain to Angelika that he had just knocked Carl out cold!


	13. Chapter 13

13

She slowly became aware of a softness that surrounded her; it was comforting and warm and held her safe. She wanted to remain in that softness, but there was something that was hovering at the edge of her consciousness that wouldn't let her stay there. She

opened her eyes to find herself in a room that she didn't recognise. She was laid in a bed, her head resting on soft pillows and her body cocooned in the covers. She tried to lift her head to get a clearer view but her muscles wouldn't co-operate, in fact her whole body felt stiff and heavy and her thoughts were slow and clumsy, as though she had slept too long and too deep.

She had no idea how she had got here and, as she was alone, there was no one to ask so she closed her eyes and searched for the last thing she could remember. It came back to her in bits and pieces, she remembered being in the forest with someone, but she was certain it wasn't Will. Where was Will anyway, if she had been sick or hurt she thought he would have been here? Then she remembered a pool of water, a woman's voice and a sudden feeling of weakness – magic. She shuddered. But she also remembered that someone had saved her and that person was Carl! Only Carl wasn't Carl was he, he was someone else. She remembered his reflection in the pool changing and that there were words that went with that change, only she couldn't remember what they were. But she had the feeling that they were important, very important. As she lay there trying to remember she felt herself sliding away again, the softness again surrounded her and she slid into a deep, natural sleep. With this sleep came dreams, dreams that made her happy and sad at the same time. Dreams of family life, of father, mother and times before events had torn the family apart and dreams about Jacob, dreams of when he first got his glasses, Will's teasing, his first book and the little things he used to do that made her smile.

---

Will had decided what to do. He would wait for Carl to wake up and, for the sake of his sister, apologise for what he had done. Carl would realise the Will hadn't been himself when he had hit him and that it wasn't really necessary to mention any of this to Lotte. Between them he was sure they could come up with a convincing story for the cut on his head and bruise on his chin, a slight accident whilst riding through the forest should cover it. And that should be that. Now he needed to check on his sister, he had spent too long away from her side. He entered the house and went straight to her bedside. He looked down at the slumbering form. There had been changes, he was sure of it. There seemed to be more colour in her cheeks and her breathing was easier.

"Sleep well," he whispered and kissed her on the forehead. Then he sat in a nearby chair and prepared to spend the night watching over his sister.

---

"Jacob." The word roused her from sleep and she looked around her. She was laid in Angelika's bed. She vaguely remembered waking before and being unable to move, but now, although she still felt very tired, her muscles were at least obeying her and she pulled herself up into a sitting position. Will was asleep in a chair nearby, his head resting on his chest and snoring softly. She smiled, he had probably been there all night, and his back would be killing him when he woke. His body gave a sudden twitch and his eyes opened.

"Good morning. How did you sleep?"

"Lotte!" Will was suddenly at her side; a brief look of pain crossed his face as he moved.

"How's the back?"

"It'll feel better. More importantly, how do you feel?"

"A little tired and stiff. What happened?"

"I was hoping that you could tell me. Carl brought you back from the forest unconscious; he said you had both been attacked by magic. What can you remember?"

"Not much. I remember looking into the pool in clearing by the tower and then I suddenly felt weak and started to fall into the water, but something stopped me…Carl stopped me…Carl saved me! But Carl isn't Carl, he's someone else…he's…he's…he's Jacob. Will, Carl is Jacob!

"Lotte! Jake is dead. He died a long time ago. How can he be Carl? Are you sure you're feeling all right?" His sister's words were scaring him, had whatever happened in the forest affected her mind?

"Will, where is Carl? I need to see him!"

Will didn't know where to start. How could he tell Lotte about what he had done, especially now that she had this idea that he was Jake? Fortunately Angelika looked in at that moment and Lotte was distracted.

"I would have thought that Carl would have arrived by now. I wonder what is keeping him. Will, you saw him before he left last night, did he say when he would be back?"

Will groaned inwardly. There was no way he was going to get out of this.

"Actually, Carl didn't leave last night. He had a little accident…" Will went on relate what had happened last night. "…He's perfectly all right. I didn't hit him hard. I left him in the stable…as far as I know he's still there."

"Will! How could you!" cried Lotte.

"You were ill, dying for all we knew, and he was simply going to leave as if nothing was wrong! I lost my temper. I'm sorry, but I was worried about you!"

"Well then, I suggest that Will and I go and see how he is this morning," suggested Angelika.

"I'm coming with you," said Lotte as she started to remove the covers.

"No you are not!"

"And how precisely, Wilhelm Grimm, are you going to stop me? Tie me to the bed?"

All three of them entered the stables and Will took them to stall where he had left Carl. Even he was shocked by the change in the man. He lay where Will had left him, but now he was deathly pale, his breathing shallow and he was shivering uncontrollably.

"Oh Jacob!" cried Lotte. She went to the obviously sick man.

"Lotte! He isn't Jake! Jake died when he was still a boy, he can't this man!" They had enough to worry about with the sick man, without his sister adding her delusions to it.

"But Will, don't you see? He can be, and is, Jake."

"HOW?!"

"Jacob Ludwig CARL Grimm."

Will gasped. He had forgotten the mistake on Jake's birth certificate that had given him Will's middle name as well as his own. He slowly went to join his sister at Carl/Jacob's side. He stared at the man and then removed the bundle from his pocket. He unwrapped it, gently turned Carl/Jacob's face towards him, and placed the glasses on him.

Suddenly he saw it. The face of the boy was reflected in the face of the man beside him.

"Jake?!" he gasped and staggered back to the other side of the stall. His mind was reeling. He didn't know how this was possible, but Jake was here, and his little brother was in need of his help.

Will took a deep breath and then approached Jake. Lotte moved aside and he placed his hand on Jake's forehead and felt the heat there.

"It's okay Jake," he gently lifted him up, "It's Will. I'm here and you're going to be fine." He then carried him back to the house.

---

"Will, drink this," Angelika handed him a cup. It was several hours since they had brought Jake back and, with the help of Angelika knowledge of local medicinal plants, they had been able to stop Jake's temperature from rising any higher.

"Thanks. He's not any worse, but I don't think he's any better, either."

Jake lay in the bed. Will couldn't stop staring at him. How could this be possible? Every rational part of him said that the man in the bed could not be his brother; he had died when he was a boy. But he couldn't deny that the man was here and he did have a look of Jake. Who was he to "look a gift horse in the mouth"? If by some freak of nature, magic or fate Jake had some how survived, after all Jake had never woken after the accident and they only had the doctor's word for it that Jake had died, arrived in Marbarden and had somehow been testing his family. Will knew this explanation made on sense, but his heart ached for it to be true. To have his little brother back and his family remade.

It was his brother's voice that finally brought him back, a familiar and welcoming sound that encouraged him to open his eyes. His vision wouldn't clear, but he wasn't wearing his glasses and there was no mistaking the blurred face that was looking at him. He smiled. He then became aware of the pounding in his head and the ache in his body. He had been ill. He wasn't surprised, he had a soaking on their way to Karlstadt and the cells that the French had thrown them into hadn't been exactly warm and welcoming, neither had the ride in the cages in Cavaldi's carriage. All in all, the events in Marbarden had both physically and emotionally drain him and he knew from experience that unless he was careful illness had a way of creeping up on him unnoticed.

He became aware that someone had joined his brother, he moved his head to see who it was, and the pain that it caused made him gasp. He raised his hand to his head and briefly touched a bandage before his hand was gently guided back to his side.

"Jake, don't touch," the voice was feminine and familiar.

"Angelika," he breathed and closed his eyes.

He felt something being slid onto his face and when he opened his eyes again he found that is vision had cleared and he was looking up at Will and Angelika.

"Jake…" said his brother as he smiled at him, "…how are you feeling?"

"My head hurts…"

"Yes…you had a slight accident…"

"Did I pass out? I'm sorry if I caused problems." It sounded like he had collapsed and hit his head and, as it was him, he had probably done it in the middle of the village!

"Not exactly, Jake. You just rest and I'll explain later."

Will and Angelika had left him alone to rest, but he wasn't able to. He thought back to what had happened over the last few days. His memories were vague, just bits and pieces. He was at the tower to do something important, then there had been a woman talking to him but she was replaced by another, more familiar and reassuring voice that had told him everything would be as he wanted it to be if he would let her help him. Then an argument with Will (now there was something he could be reasonably sure about!) which was followed by the familiar women's voice again and with it had come Lotte (all grown up as she always was in his dreams) but this time she had been about to drown and he had saved her! How much his memories had been distorted by illness he couldn't be sure. But it must have affected his behaviour and he hoped he hadn't done anything to embarrass himself or anyone else, especially Will. It was even possible that he had collapsed at the party and whole of what he remembered was some fever-fuelled delusion. But he still felt that he should say something.

"Will," he began as his brother re-entered the room, "I know that I have been ill, and probably longer than I realised. It must have had some effect on my behaviour and if I said or did anything that may have caused you problems then I can only apologise. All I can say is that I didn't know what I was doing and hope that you can forgive me…"

"Jake, it doesn't matter. The main thing is that you are here and getting better…" Jake had been sick when he arrived. That explained everything! He was probably unsure of his welcome from them as well. "…and I have some else who wants to say hello." He stepped aside and let Lotte come forward.

"Hello Jake."

Jake just stared at her. It was his hearts true desire made real. His sister back, his family remade and, if his memories were correct, he had saved her!

"You're real?! I thought you were just part of my dream…you are so beautiful," suddenly there were tears streaming down his face, "I'm so sorry for what I did to you," he sobbed, "can you ever forgive me?"

"Oh Jake!" she took her crying brother in her arms, "Of course I forgive you!" She had no idea what he was talking about, but that didn't matter. She held him until his sobbing stopped. She looked down at him.

"Jake?" She put her had under his chin and lifted his face up. He had cried himself to sleep in her arms.

---

Will came into the room, sat in the chair by the bed, and, again watched his brother as he slept. He hadn't questioned Jake about where he had been before he suddenly turned up in the village. He was sure that, when he was ready, Jake would talk about it, and part of him knew that it might be some things he didn't want to hear. Had his "death" been to cover up a mistake by the doctor or, God forbid, had it been used to ease their pain after their mother had been convinced that it would give her youngest child a better life and her one less mouth to feed? Had it been the guilt that had led to her early death? And what connection did this all have to the metal disk that he had discovered covering his brother heart after he had brought him back from the stable? But, he decided, these were questions that could wait for their answers. Jake was here and getting better, so what did the past matter when they had their future to plan?

---

Jake woke a few hours later. He head felt better, but he still felt weak and shaky. He lay there, just staring at the ceiling and letting the thoughts in his head settle. So much had changed in the last few hours. When he had arrived at the village he had been just a stranger. Now he had a "new" name and a family. He had never used his first name before, but hearing them say it…it just felt right. But he had no past. His memories were so confused, which were real and which were the result of the illness he couldn't be sure. He couldn't even remember how he got to Marbarden.

"Penny for them?"

He turned his head and saw the blurred outline of Lotte standing in the doorway.

"I don't think they are worth that much."

"Oh, I think they are." She entered the room and sat in the chair by his bed, "Here." She passed him his glasses and he put them on. They felt strange, like they didn't fit properly. But he had probably damaged somewhere that he couldn't remember. He looked up and smiled at her face.

"Jake, when you first woke up …"

"I thought you were dead."

"Yes…why?"

"I don't know. I was just certain you were dead. Look, I know this makes no sense. My memories don't mean anything to me. I can't even remember how I got here, or why I was calling myself Carl. You and Will must have so many questions and I'm sorry that I can't answer them for you."

"You probably have a few yourself."

"Maybe I will, when I can remember them!"

Lotte laughed.

"Jake," she paused not quite knowing how to phrase her next question, "the disk on your chest?"

Jake felt his finger search out the disk and trace the pattern on its surface as she talked, it felt so familiar and at the same time so unfamiliar. It could hardly be natural, could it?

"Lotte, I don't know what it is or what it does." He gave a hard laugh, "It's another of things that is lost in the muddle that I call my mind. But it doesn't hurt." he reassured his sister.

"Will look at it as you were sleeping. It covers your heart, Jake…"

"And he thinks it might have something to do with magic…dark magic?"

"Yes."

He sat up, took his sister's hands in his, and looked her in the face.

"Lotte, I don't know where it came from. But it doesn't hurt. You are right, it could be magic. But it doesn't have to be dark magic. It could be what saved me. It could be what brought me here…and do you think that was bad?"

"No!" She threw her arms around her brother.

"What's going on here, then?"

They both looked up to see Will standing in the doorway.

"We were just talking about the disk in my chest."

"Do you have any theories?"

"No. But I think that when the reply comes from my professor. I will ask him about it."

"So you plan to turn me into an academic investigation, then?" Lotte looked at Jake, but he had a smile on his face.

"Of course, little brother," added Will, "what other use do you have?!"

---

The days passed quickly and happily for Jake as he got to know his siblings and Marbarden began to feel like home. He and Lotte spent their time discussing folklore and stories and they even started writing together and Will discovered just how much fun he could have gently teasing his little brother. But he also discovered how much fun it was to tease Angelika, and even more fun when she teased back!

Lotte and Jake watched with amusement as Will and Angelika skirted around each as he tried to seduce her and she gradually allowed herself to be seduced. One day he simply walked up to her, took her in his arms, and kissed her.

"I love you."

"I know," she removed his arms from around her and stood looking at him. Will looked terrified. Then she took him in her arms and kissed him back.

"Does that mean that we're staying?" Jake asked his sister

"I would think so. But it does present us with a bit of a problem."

"It does?"

"What are we going to wear to the wedding?!"

---

As time when on Jake found his thoughts drawn back to the forest. He had learnt from Lotte and Will what had happened when she was attacked and his vague memories of looking for something at the tower meant that his desire to visit the forest slowly grew. Lotte didn't want him to go into the forest until he was fully recovered, because of the strange things that could happen there. But one day he found himself unexpectedly alone and he set off to satisfy his curiosity.

He found the clearing easily enough, or perhaps too easily if the stories of moving trees were true. He let his eyes travel across the clearing, taking in the tower, the crypts and the ruins that surrounded them finally coming to rest on the pool that lay at the edge of the clearing. He a vague feeling that he had been there before, but of the events with Lotte nothing came back to him. He entered the clearing and walked slowly around the tower, examining each of the crypts as he went and then stepped back a few feet and looked up at the window he could see at the top of the tower. As there was not entrance to the tower, that he could see, he couldn't work out how you could get into the room, except perhaps with a rope.

He closed his eyes and let his senses take stock of the clearing and the rest of the forest. There was something strange about the forest, he had had the feeling that someone, or something had been observing him as he made his way here. There was nothing hostile in the watching, just a feeling that something was aware of his presence there. The clearing, on the other hand, had a much more oppressive feel to it, a feeling that something was waiting and he found his thoughts straying towards the Queen. His eyes returned to the tower window and he wondered what it was like up there as the Queen waited, slept? Lotte had said that there had been screams from the tower when they had prevented the spell from being completed. What had it been like for her to realise that she had been defeated? A bird flew past him, its outstretched wing almost brushing his cheek, shocking him out of his thoughts and he followed its path as it came to rest on a branch by the pool. It was the first animal that Jake had been since he entered the forest and he approached it, intrigued by what it was doing here. As he watched the bird dropped something into the water that sent ripples across its surface. A slight breeze rustled the leaves of the trees by the pool and then Jake felt himself take a deep breath.

He could almost feel the air as it passed into his body, leaving a warm, soothing feeling in its wake and he felt himself relax. The clearing now felt pleasantly warm and Jake found himself a spot by the pool to sit and watch the tower, enjoying the warmth and thinking on all the Lotte had told him about the Queen. He didn't even feel his eyes start to close.

She was stood in front of him. The most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was dressed in magnificent robes and jewels; she even had a kind of coronet on her head. She held out her hand and Jake took it. She raised him up and kissed him.

"You have returned, my prince." Her words echo through him.

"Yes."

"Come to me." She kissed him again and he felt himself falling into her embrace.

The Queen watched as Jake fell into the pool, the water opening to receive him and closing over him to leave not a ripple on the surface.

---

Jake found himself standing in the tower room; the Queen was sat on her throne looking at him.

"My Queen."

"How do you feel? I know you have been unwell and I was worried when you did not return to me."

"I was unwell, but now that I am here …"

The Queen beckoned him and he came and sat at her feet. She looked down at him and noticed that he seemed to be hesitant about something.

"My Queen, may your humble servant ask a favour of you?" This was most unusual, but as she was intrigued she let him continue.

"You may ask."

"Will you keep them safe, my Queen?"

"Who?"

"Lotte, Will, and Angelika."

"Do you love them more than me?"

"No My Queen! I would serve you better if I knew that they were safe and under your protection."

This wasn't right. He should obey her without question. It would seem that he wasn't her prefect prince after all; he had disobeyed her before and now this. Maybe his period of being unwell meant that he needed to be replaced. She could already think of a suitable replacement. She decided that she needed to test his loyalty and then she would decide.

"Very well. I will allow no further harm to come to them and keep them safe."

"Thank you, my Queen. How may I serve you?"

She looked at him and saw that the look of adoration was back in her eyes. She explained to him what she wanted him to do.


	14. Chapter 14

14

Will turned the wheel on the well and watched as the bucket slowly rose towards him. It finally reached the top; he filled his bucket and then turned back toward the house.

"Will, have you seen Jake?" Lotte called to him from other side of the village square.

"Not this morning."

"I can't find him."

"Don't worry, he won't have gone far. I just need to take this water to Angelika and we'll find him. Have you checked his room?"

"He wasn't there earlier, but I'll check again." She watched as Will set off towards Angelika's before she went back to their house. She knew that it was silly to worry about Jake; he was probably just indulging his curiosity somewhere in the village, but she still was concerned for his safety. Maybe it was just her maternal instincts, but he had only just come back to them and she would feel much better when her little brother was back at her side.

She entered his room to find Jake standing by the bed. The contents of his bag were laid out in front of him and he had just picked up one of them as she entered.

"Where have you been, little brother?" she liked the sound of those words every time she said them.

"I went to look at tower again," he admitted looking down at the floor, "but nothing happened that you need to worry about. I just wanted to get the atmosphere right for when I write about it.

"You should have let me know you were going," she crossed the room and put her arms around him, "I was worried that something had happened to you. You are the only little brother I have, you know." And she ruffled his hair.

"But I did find something that I think you might be interested in." He handed her something, it appeared to be a piece of broken mirror

She watched as the sunlight glinted off it and felt her eyes drawn to the reflection in it. It showed what appeared to be a richly decorated room, with a large, ornately carved chair, a table with a book on it and bed with many mattresses on it.

"Charlotte, my child."

She had heard the voice before, but didn't know where. But the voice was soft and comforting and it took all her fears and worries away. A feeling of fatigue swept over her she felt her eyes start to close. Jake caught her as she fell and held her in his arms

"Charlotte. Look at me!"

Lotte opened her eyes to see a beautiful woman now reflected in the mirror. She smiled at Lotte and held out her hand. Lotte took it and felt the warmth of the touch pass through her and she knew she would be safe. Jake released her from his arms and she found herself standing with the mirror in her hand. Then the woman stepped out of the mirror and was stood beside her. Lotte looked at her and Jake and smiled, now she and Jake would be together forever.

"Charlotte, I need Wilhelm and Angelika and then you all can join Jacob. Will you take me to them?"

"Yes…my Queen." Lotte knew that the Queen would allow nothing bad to happen to any of them.

"Jacob, remain her and await my return."

Lotte led the Queen to Angelika's house. Angelika was in the workshop preparing to skin the rabbits she had found in the traps she checked that morning. She poured some of the water that Will had brought her into a bowl and then went to collect the rabbits. She was just about to make the first cut into one of them when she noticed that the sunlight coming through the window was making a sparkling pattern on the water.

I must be love, if I'm distracted by sparking water! She thought with a laugh. But as she stared at the water she became more and more transfixed by the patterns. So much so that she didn't hear them enter.

"Hello, Angelika."

The voice was almost a whisper in her ear and she felt the air change around her so that she had difficulty breathing.

"You seem unwell, my child. Here, let me help you."

She felt a warm soothing touch against her hand and the knife was slipped from her grasp. There was a suddenly pain in her hand and when she looked a bead of blood was on her fingertip. As she watched it rolled over the edge of her finger and fell into the water in bowl. She felt her body grow heavy and, as her eyes started to close, she began to fall. She fell into arms that held her in a strong and comforting embrace.

"Will…"

"No, Angelika." Angelika opened her eyes and looked at the woman who had spoken. "Will you serve me?" She felt there was nothing else she had ever wanted to do.

"Yes, my Queen."

The Queen smiled and Angelika rose from her arms and crossed to where Lotte was standing.

"Angelika, where is Wilhelm?"

"He went to find Lotte, my Queen."

"Lotte are you there?" Will called as he entered the house.

He had given the water to Angelika and it was now time to help find Jake. Although he was sure that he was somewhere close by he would humour Lotte by helping her look. He entered Jake's room to find him standing there.

"There you are! Do you know that Lotte is looking for you?"

"Yes, she was just here. In fact I think she went looking for you!"

"Oh well, I'm sure she will end up here eventually. Where were you, by the way?"

"I went back to the tower."

"Jake! I thought we agreed that Lotte or I would go with you. Anything could have happened!"

"You sound just like Lotte!" Jake laughed as he started to put his things back into his bag.

As his finger closed around his book he felt something brush past the now almost healed cut on his temple.

"Jacob!…Jake! Are you all right? Can you hear me?" the voice was Will's and he sounded concerned. But Will was right next to him and he hadn't spoken. Jake put the book into his bag, stood up, and turned to Will.

"Will, I did find something in the forest that Lotte found very fascinating, would you like to see it?"

"Sure, Jake."

Will came over and looked at what Jake had in his hand. It was a piece of mirror. As he removed it from his brother's hand he noticed that it didn't show his reflection. It showed what appeared to be a richly decorated room and the light seemed to almost dance across its surface. Will found himself transfixed by the mirror and everything else just faded away.

A noise from behind Jake made him turn and he saw them standing at the door. The Queen entered followed by Lotte and Angelika. He smiled to see that Angelika was now under the protection of the Queen.

"Wilhelm, my handsome prince."

She approached the man as he stared at the mirror in his hand and watched the familiar change in his breathing that indicated that her magic was working on him. She reached out and took the knife that Angelika held out to her.

"It's all right, Wilhelm."

She took his hand and he felt her touch pass through his body. There was a sharp pain in his finger and he looked down to see blood falling into a bowl of water in Lotte's hands. Then his vision faded, his body became heavy, and he fell into the woman's arms. He felt safe and secure in her embrace and knew that he must serve her.

"My Queen." He murmured as he gazed up at her face.

"You have done well, my servant."

She smiled at Jake who stood beside his brother. Maybe she had been wrong about him and his illness had just been a temporary lapse in his loyalty and now that she had them all under her power she could see the sense of having more than one servant to choose from and she was sure she could think of uses for them!

"Thank you, my Queen. I live only to serve you."

Jake met the eyes of Will and he smiled. His brother, the woman that his brother loved, and their sister were all now under the protection of the Queen. All that he loved was safe from harm and would share his life forever. He felt a deep contentment fill him and he knew that to serve the Queen was all he ever wanted to do.

"Come, we must be going. "

Jake led Will to the Queen, who held out her hand. Will took it and escorted her out of the door. Jake turned to Lotte and Angelika and he was just about to lead them out of the room when he remembered that he had left the mirror piece on the bed and he turned to retrieve it.

The strap from his bag was hanging over the side of the bed, he caught his foot in it as he moved and before he could stop himself he began to fall. His head connected with the bed post, right where the cut already was, and there was a suddenly bright flare of pain and then, as the darkness came, he could swear that he could hear Will's voice again. He tried to respond but the darkness overwhelmed him.

They turned at the sound of the thud and saw that Jake lying on the floor. Lotte approached his still form and turned it over. His eyes were closed and there was blood coming from the cut on his head.

"My Queen, your servant has fallen and he is hurt."

The Queen entered the room and looked at Jake's still form.

"Does he still live?"

Lotte bent down by Jake and felt for a pulse. "He does, my Queen."

"Then bring him."

Will carried the injured Jake as he; Lotte and Angelika followed the Queen out of Marbarden and into the forest. Despite the fact that it was nearly midday they had met no one whilst the Queen was in the village.

The Queen led them to clearing by the tower. Will laid Jake close to the pool and then the Queen commanded each one of them to "sleep" as she guided them to their "beds" where they would be safe and protected as she had promised.


	15. Chapter 15

15

"Jacob…" a soft and familiar voice was in the air, "Jacob, come to me!"

Jake heard the voice calling him and he slowly regained his senses to find himself lying by the pool in the tower clearing. His eyes focused on the Queen; he rose and went to her side. She led him towards the tower when he found Lotte, Will and Angelika each laid on top of one of the crypts.

His head hurt and he found that he couldn't concentrate on what the Queen was saying. He glanced around the clearing and finally back to three forms laid in front of him. Deep inside him he felt a fear begin to grow, a fear that something terrible was about to happen.

She approached the crypts and examined each form that lay there.

"Such a sweet new prince." Her hand caressed Will's face.

"Wait. What are you going to do with them? You promised you would keep them safe."

"Oh Jacob. I gave you what you wanted. You must have realised that there would be a price to pay. You have had long enough with them to make the decision."

"What decision?"

"You can't have them both. You've got to choose! Your brother or your sister, which will it be?"

"No! I can't choose. I won't be responsible for the death of one of them!"

"It's a pity that you didn't have that sentiment when you were younger! Very well. I will make the choice for you." A branch shot out from the forest, wrapped itself around Will's ankle and dragged him off the crypt towards the pool.

"No! Stop! Wait!" Jake was close to panic. He had to find a way to stop this. He had to save them!

"Then it will be your sister," another branch wrapped itself around Lotte's wrist, where her arm hung limply down the side of the crypt and half dragged her from it.

"Wait! There has to be something that you would take instead of them?"

"But Jacob, you must make the choice. Which one of them means more to you?"

She crossed to Lotte, her head resting on the ground whilst her legs remained on the crypt. As he watched the branch pulled her to her feet beside the Queen. She looked like a puppet held up by a single string.

"You've done without her before. Would it be so difficult to be without her again? Angelika will get to keep her true love and you will have shown Will that you are willing to put his feelings before your own. I promise that I will never tell him what you did!"

She moved to Will, who was now held upright by a branch that was wrapped around his chest.

"Now dear Wilhelm. My sweet prince. He never did treat you that well did he? And it was your wish to be reunited with Lotte that brought you to me in the first place, wasn't it? Don't worry about Angelika, I can find her another true love."

She moved to the final crypt and the woman that lay on top of it.

"Angelika."

As Jake watched Angelika's eyes opened, she reached out, took the Queen's hand, and rose to her feet. The Queen led her to Jake's side.

"Angelika would you like Jacob to be your new true love?"

"Jake," said Angelika with a smile.

"No," gasped Jake.

"No? Pity," she let go of Angelika's hand. Her eyes closed and she collapsed at Jake's feet. "I could have made her love you and be your servant until the day she died."

"I don't want that kind of love."

"What kind do you want? Brotherly or sisterly? Come Jacob, you are taking too long. Turn around and make the decision!"

Jake turned back towards the pool to see Will and Lotte suspended side by side over the pool.

"No!" he cried and took a few steps towards them.

He couldn't make that decision; he loved them both. Will, despite everything that had happened between them, was still there at his side and Lotte, he thought that he had lost her until he came here and now that he had her back he couldn't let her go again. He couldn't choose!

"If you let them both go I will willingly serve you forever and do all that you ask of me." It was the only thing he could think to do.

The Queen laughed. "Choose or I will take them both."

Jake's was shaking, he palms were sweating and he could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He felt a very strange feeling in his chest and when he looked down he could see the hilt of the dagger vibrating with each beat.

"Will," he said softly, "I choose Will."

"I sorry, I didn't quiet catch that."

"I CHOOSE WILL!"

"Such brotherly love. I'm sure that Angelika will be pleased."

The branch lifted Will away from the pool and laid him next to Angelika.

"Don't they make a beautiful couple? Now for you my dear."

She walked towards the hanging form of Lotte. The branch lowered her so she was at eye level with the Queen and she gently kissed her on the forehead.

"You are my first and I promise that no matter how long it takes to gather the others I will keep you safe. Your youth and beauty will live on forever."

"But I thought you were going to kill her!"

"Why should I do that? When it is much more satisfying to have the one that defeated the spell become the first to be collected for the next one. Don't worry, I will let you visit her."

"But the next Blood Moon that will that spell can be worked with won't be for hundreds of years!"

"I can be patient. I have already waited many years; a few more will not matter to me. It will give you time to find the others that I need."

"Me?"

"You are my servant, you have my dagger in your heart. You live and do my will for as long as I command. If you try to disobey, remember I will be keeping a close eye on them and their children." She glanced at the prone forms of Will and Angelika. "Now, my beautiful one. It is time for you to sleep until I need you." The branch began to lower Lotte into the pool.

Jake watched as she slowly slipped beneath the water. He knew that he had to wait until the last moment, but he had to fight the urge to rush to her. Eventually he watched as her face began to slip into the water. He lunged forward into the water, wrapped his arms around her and pulled back with all his strength. There was a momentary resistance from the branch but then it snapped and then they were falling backwards. He landed heavily at on the ground with Lotte cradled in his arms. Then he felt himself being lifted and he let her fall from his grasp.

"YOU WILL NOT DISOBEY ME AGAIN. I WILL HAVE A NEW PRINCE!"

She slammed him down and reached towards his chest. She grasped the dagger and slowly removed it from his chest. Watching with obvious pleasure at each convulsion of pain that wracked his body as it was removed. Then she stood looking down at him.

"I will have a new prince and I know just who to choose!" and she walked towards Angelika and Will.

Jake felt excruciating pain and then all his strength draining from his body. He watched in horror as she approached his brother. He knew this was his once chance and, with strength he didn't know he had, he managed to haul himself to his knees and drag himself to back towards Lotte where she lay at the edge of pool.

"I love you!" his whispered to her and kissed her cheek.

He felt a shudder go through her. Then dizziness overcame him and he felt himself begin to fall. He felt the sudden shock of water hitting his face and entering his mouth, and then there was nothing.

The Queen approached the still form of Will and took him in her arms. His eyes opened and he looked at her. He wasn't supposed to be doing that but she could fix that easily enough.

"Welcome, my sweet new prince."

She poised the dagger on his chest. All she had to do plunge it into his heart, kiss him and he would be hers. Then Angelika would join Lotte in her sleep, Will would collect the other ten and then they would all wait until the time was right and the spell would work.

"I don't think my brother would like that!"

Something slammed into the Queen. She stumbled, Will fell from her arms and the dagger went bouncing across the grass. Lotte bent and picked it up.

"Will, Angelika … are you all right?"

"Lotte," Will sounded confused as he groggily got to his feet. A soft moan came from Angelika and Will went to her as she slowly started to wake.

The Queen picked herself up stood between them and the pool. She stared defiantly from Lotte to Will.

"I will find a way to destroy this," Lotte held up the dagger in her hand. "You will never be able to enslave others."

"You may have my dagger, but I have other ways to get what I want. I have patience and can wait. Time is on my side, not yours. His kiss saved you, but I fear your may come to late for him. We will meet again." She slowly faded away to reveal Jake, floating face down in the pool.

"JAKE!" the word left both sets of lips simultaneously.

Will plunged into the water and dragged his brother out and then gathered him into his arms. Jake's eyes were closed and his body limp, but somehow is glasses had remained on his face. Lotte came to his side, followed by Angelika, and she felt for his pulse. There was none, nor was there any movement from his chest. She felt tears begin to roll down her face.

"Oh Will!"

Will gently laid his brother on the ground, he removed his glasses and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

"I love you little brother and I forgive you for anything you think you may have said or done to me."

Then he held his sister in his arms until both their tears had ceased.


	16. Chapter 16

16

"Angelika, I think 'e is waking." Cavaldi's words brought her back to the room and to Will's bedside. As she watched, his eyelids fluttered, opened and he was squinting up at her. She smiled at him.

"How are you feeling?"

It seemed to take a few seconds for Will to realise that she was talking to him. He struggled to sit up and then his eyes scanned the room before coming back to hers.

"Weird…what happened?"

"Cavaldi found you standing at the window staring at the moon. We tried talking to you, but you didn't respond. Then you called to Jake and collapsed," she glanced at Cavaldi as if unsure what to tell him and then she continued, "you…you have been asleep since then, but you called for Jake several time."

What she had decided not to tell him was that after he collapsed he had had no heartbeat until his body had shuddered and he shouted Jake's name.

Will listen to all she had said carefully and then moved to get out of bed, Angelika moved aside to let him, and he crossed to the window and looked out.

"I know where Jake is…" he said slowly as he stared out the window.

"Well, Grimmy. Why don't we go and get 'im then. The storyboy needs to be back with those who care for him."

"…and he's dead." Will voice became monotone as he finished his sentence. He heard gasps from behind him.

"Will, how can you know this?"

"Angelika, I felt him die…last night I felt Jake die."

"Will, last night you most definitely weren't yourself. It could have been a dream or hallucination or anything."

"It was real."

"There is one way to find out. We go to where you say Jake is and…" she let her voice trail off as if unwilling to complete the sentence.

So they left the tavern and took the road that led away from Malsburg. It wasn't long before a barn at the side of the road came into view. As they approached the barn Will slowed and then stopped his horse and dismounted.

"He's in there."

Angelika and Cavaldi also dismounted and Cavaldi, after taking the reins from Will's hands, tethered their horses to nearby trees. Will approached the door to the barn and stopped, his hand resting on it but he seemed unable to go any further.

"Will." Angelika placed her hand on his shoulder and he turned to find her and Cavaldi at his side.

"I guess I had better get this over with, then." He pushed the door, it opened and all three of them entered the barn.

At first the dimness of the barn made seeing anything difficult, but as their eyes grew accustomed to the half-light they could began to make out some features. They heard a snuffling sound and turned to see a horse standing in the corner of the barn.

"Pepper!" exclaimed Will, as he recognised his brother's old horse that they had chased into the forest after it had "eaten" Elsie.

They approached the horse, it raised its head looked at them and then returned to what it had been doing before. Which turned out to be nuzzling the shoulder of its master who lay, wrapped in a blanket, on the floor beside it.

"Have you been looking after him for me?" Will asked the horse as he moved it away and he bent down to Jake.

Jake lay on his side, his arms and the blanket wrapped around him. Exactly as he usually slept when they were roughing it between jobs. Through the gap in the blanket Will could see that his waistcoat and the top of his shirt were undone and his underclothes were visible. Jake's head rested on his folded up coat, his glasses still on his nose and a peaceful look on his face. In fact, Will had never seen his brother look more peaceful. Usually when he slept there were worry lines on his forehead as dreams occupied his sleeping hours. But now there was just a look of peace and an almost healthy glow to his skin. To Will it seemed to emphasis how young his brother really was, his beard and scholarly manner had added the years to him. The only thing that marred this view was the cut on his temple, it looked sore but Will knew how to deal with that. It seemed to have already started to heal, but it would probably leave a scar.

"Jacob!…Jake! Are you all right? Can you hear me?"

There was colour in his cheeks. Maybe Angelika had been right and his certainty that Jake was dead had just been part of a delusion when he passed out. He gently shook his brothers shoulder. But there was no response. With growing fear his placed his fingers against Jakes neck, there was no pulse, nor could he feel any exhalation of breath as he laid his finger against his mouth and nose.

Jake was dead.

How could it be? His skin still felt warm to the touch. Was that why Pepper was nuzzling him, had he died only minutes before they arrived? If they had arrived earlier would he have been alive? Could they have saved him? Will's mind was reeling. His little brother, and the last member of his family was gone. The last thing he had done was argued with him! He should have gone after him and persuaded Jake there and then to let him go with him and not run off the Angelika's to get away from the fight. At the time he thought he was giving Jake and himself time to cool off, but now he realised that he was just scared that although he thought that his relationship with Jake had been changed after the tower, maybe it hadn't been changed enough. He had let him down, should have been here to protect him and then he wouldn't have died, or at least he wouldn't have died alone.

"Will…"

Angelika's voice brought him out of his thoughts. They had seen him kneel by Jake and his hand move to his neck and face but there had been no words from him, he had merely been looking at Jake for the last few minutes. He turned to look at them. The look in his eyes told them all they needed to know. The look of loss and grief told them more than any words could have done.

"NO!"

"Caro storyboy!"

Angelika moved to Will's side. He had returned to simply staring at Jake's still form and he seem oblivious to everything around him.

"Will, come on. We need to take care of him." She put her hand on Will's shoulder.

"Give them my love, little brother." He said softly to Jake and then he reached out and removed the glasses from his face, folded them and placed them in his pocket.

"Grimmy, I think you should look at this." Will glanced towards Cavaldi who was stood a few feet to their left.

Will could see the rest of Jake's things including his clothes, a lamp and his beloved book. Cavaldi was holding something out to him and Will realised that it was a folded piece of paper, a letter, with his name on it in Jake's familiar flowing script. He took it from him and broke the familiar stylised G seal on the back.

Will,

I have made a terrible mistake. There is something that I have missed about the Queen's story. I fear that it may be vital and could cause untold danger for everyone in Marbarden.

I first encountered the story whilst at the University and I must return there to find the original source and the information that I need to correct my mistake. And I hope this will stop the dreams as well.

Please, I beg you, remain in Marbarden and look everyone, I know that they will be safe in your care. I will return as soon as I am able.

I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me for leaving so suddenly and I am sorry if anything I said tonight hurt you. We can talk about what we should do next when I return.

Pass my love to Angelika and the girls.

Your ever-loving brother

Jake

P.S. You were right, here is the note that you predicted I would leave.

Will reread the letter, showed it to Cavaldi and Angelika and then he folded it and put it in his pocket, along side Jake's glasses. Now what were they to do? They needed to get Jake back to Marbarden to give him the decent burial that he deserved. Jake had finally come alive in that place, proved that his belief in magic was justified and shown what that belief was capable of, so it seemed to be a fitting site for his final resting place.

"Angelika, do you think that the people of Marbarden would mind if I…" he had to take a deep breath before he could put into words, and therefore make real, what he was about to say, "…brought Jake back to bury him there? I know we haven't been there very long, but to honest, it was the closest place to a home we have had in years."

"It we be our honour and you are welcome to stay for as long as you need."

"Thank you."

She came forward and took the Will in her arms. At first he didn't respond, but then she felt his arms embrace her. She just held him, trying to convey what she couldn't say in words. That she would be there for him if he needed her. He could come and go as he pleased but if he needed someone to talk to about Jake or any thing else she would be there. It was the least she could do. It seemed so silly that less than a month ago she had never heard of the Brothers Grimm and had been an outcast in her own village. The suspicion and distrust of the people she had grown up with had become a daily occurrence since she had returned to find her father and sisters gone, and she had known that, as the children disappeared, her name had been voiced when the authorities came. Then this cocky young man and his quiet brother had turned up, claiming to be sent by the French, and she had been forced to guide them into the forest.

She looked over Will's shoulder at Jake, where he lay on the floor. He had been true to his word when he had said that he would get her sisters back. He had been the one who flung himself into the pool after she had fallen in, and been the last face she saw as she pulled down into the water. Then there had been a beautiful woman with a dress and a crown of flowers for her, her father's gentle voice telling her to sleep, and everything faded until she had opened her eyes to Jake's face, realised that he had kissed her and knew that he had succeeded in defeating the Queen. She had also seen the look in his eyes when he couldn't wake Will as he lay on the ground by the tower, only to discover that it had been a trick of Will's to get her to kiss him. He had been more relieved than angry when Will had kissed her and she had meant to make sure that Will apologised for what he had done. The village was a better place for their being there and the least they could do was to allow Jake to be buried there.

Will broke from Angelika's arms and returned to his brother. Pepper was nuzzling his shoulder again and Will gently pushed the horse away and then stared at the cut on his brothers temple.

"It's too small, Cavaldi."

"Too small?"

"To have killed Jake."

"Perhaps 'e fell from 'is horse?"

"Pepper would never let him fall. So what killed him? Cavaldi, what could have done it?"

"Are there any diseases that you family 'ave that could have done this?"

"No, I mean Jake has been sick in the past, and a couple of times it was serious. When we first started our scams one of the rigs for the witch collapsed and Jake broke his leg in the fall," Will could remember it as if it was yesterday. Hildlick and Bunst had helped him remove the fallen equipment from around the silent Jake and the memory of the sight of Jake's leg still made him feel sick, "but it was only when he was tired that he used to favour that leg." Will stopped when he realised that he had just referred to his brother in the past tense.

"It was the kiss." Cavaldi's statement made them both look at him.

"What?"

"At the tower. It was a kiss of true love or death. So, caro storyboy, it would seem that it wasn't true love after all." Cavaldi's voice was full of sadness as he spoke.

"Then I killed him."

"No Grimmy. You were dead yourself at this point. Jake had removed that woman's dagger from your heart and you were lifeless on the ground."

"Then it was me?"

Angelika was shocked that she could have done this. She had only half believed Jake when he had told her the story was real. She had had a proper education and the rational part of her told her that it couldn't possibly be real. But her other half remembered the story that her father had told her and, as Jake explained it, all that had happened had seemed to fit the story. The events after the fire had happened so quickly that she hadn't had time to think about them and now it seemed that she hadn't really believed until it was too late and Jake had paid the price for that.

"No, Angelika. Jake had been in love with you for a long time," Will smiled at the look that drew from her, "young, beautiful and part of the story. You were his perfect mythical princess and he never stood a chance. No it wasn't you. It was me. Jake and I always had a rather volatile relationship and there wasn't always love between us."

Whilst he had spoken he had been slowly gathering up Jake's things from the barn and now all that remained were his book and Jake himself. Angelika picked up the book, placed in Jake's bag and handed it to him. Will placed the bag over his shoulder and then approached Jake. Pepper had returned to nuzzling Jake and Will pushed him away again and then removed the blanket from around Jake. As he did so two things happened. Firstly, something white fell from the blanket. Will picked it up; it was one of Jake's handkerchiefs. He unfolded it to find small flakes of something reddish-brown inside. It almost looked like dried blood. There was something very strange happening here.

Secondly, one of Jake's arms that had been wrapped around his body came loose as the blanket was removed as is it hit the floor something fell from Jake's hand. All three of them stared at it. There was no mistaking what it was. It was a piece of the mirror.

"Jake…" Will didn't even realise that he had spoken as he scrambled to his brother. A fear gripping his heart.

He gently moved Jake's open waistcoat and shirt and then, with a shaking hand, he moved Jake's underclothes, pushing aside the rabbit's foot that he habitually wore. There resting flush to the skin of his chest was the too familiar sight of the hilt of the Queen's dagger, it's point, he knew, lodged deep in his brother's heart.

That had been what Pepper had been trying to tell him. That the Queen had stolen his brother. Suddenly Jake's dreams now made sense. The Queen had been tempting Jake away from him and he hadn't been clever enough to see it. If only he had questioned Jake more about the dreams! But where had Jake got the dagger and mirror? That was an easy question to answer; Jake must have found them when he was at the tower after the party. After all Cavaldi had said that Jake removed the dagger from his heart and the mirror had shattered into pieces when he and Angelika's father had fallen from the tower. But why? Why had Jake let this happen? Then her words came back to him.

"If you can think of a reason why Jake might be willing to give up his place in the world…"

There could only be one reason that Will could think of. One reason for Jake to do something like this. If he had been offered a chance to do what he had wanted to do since he was a child…to change the event that had started Jake on his path to find the truth of magic and had eventually led them to Marbarden.

"Lotte…Oh Jake! No Jake! She wouldn't have wanted this. Not this."

A strange thought ran through his mind. Had all of this been done just to get Jake here, now? Then another thought struck him. Jake was alive, lost to the Queen, but definitely alive!

Suddenly Will needed to get out of the barn, he needed air and time to think. He tried to stand only to find that his legs wouldn't hold him and, as he heard Cavaldi swear in Italian and Angelika call Jake's name and then his, everything went dark.

---

He woke to find Angelika wiping his forehead with a damp cloth. She smiled at him.

"I didn't feel him die. I felt her take him. Where is he?"

Angelika helped him stand and then led him over to where Jake lay, being watched over by Cavaldi. He stared down at what he knew now was his sleeping younger brother, gently ran his had down his cheek and then removed Jake's glasses from his pocket and place them back on his face.

"Hold on Jake. I will find a way to save you. I promise." He would not let his brother down this time.

"Grimmy, what do we do now?" Will looked to find Cavaldi and Angelika looking at him.

"I don't know." He replied.


	17. Chapter 17

17

Will had decided to take Jake back to Marbarden, to be perfectly honest he couldn't think what else to do. They couldn't stay in the barn and he now knew that there was no doctor who could help his brother. He hoped that being around people and places that he was familiar with might encourage Jake to come back to them.

So here they were travelling slowly along the road that lead back to Marbarden. Angelika was in the lead, he followed with Jake balanced on his horse in front of him, his head resting on Will's shoulder, one arm around Jake's waist to steady him and the other holding the reins of his horse, and Cavaldi bring up the rear, leading Pepper.

The sun was shining down and the forest around them was so peaceful. Even the bird's seemed reluctant to disturb the peace with their flying and he could see them perched on the branches of the trees as they rode by. He let his thoughts wander to the last time he had ridden through the forest with Jake, when they were bring him back from the tower, where all of this had started. But, then Jake had been asleep at his back and not propped in front of him in some magic induced unconsciousness that he wasn't at all sure he knew how to cure. He felt himself become drowsy and he shook his head, if he fell asleep he might let Jake fall from the horse. He suddenly realised that his horse had stopped; he looked at Angelika to see why she had stopped. She was seated on her horse in front of him, which had also stopped, but there was something strange about her, her head seemed to have fallen forward. He was just about to call out to her when she slid sideways off her horse. Will had no time to be alarmed as he was suddenly overcome by sleep, his eyes closed and his head fell forward so that is rested on Jake's shoulder, his arm slipped from around Jake's waist and reins fell loose from his other hand.

She had to admit that they had looked quite amusing. The horses just stood there, their riders asleep on their backs. She watched as the branch that had encircled Angelika's waist gave her a gentle pull and she slid of her horse. Will's head fell to his brother's shoulder and she approached. She looked up at Jake's sleeping face and put a hand to his thigh. Jake's eyes slowly opened and he looked at her.

"So, you are still in there."

Jake's eyes closed again. She then gave them both a push and watched as they slid off the horse and into the waiting embrace of the trees. Cavaldi gave a slight murmur as a branch encouraged him to join his companions and her job was done. Pepper would lead the horses to where they needed to go, and then there would be no trace left of their passage through the forest.

---

"He needs your help."

Her words brought him back to the world and he found himself lying in a clearing in the forest. He eased himself up and glanced around. Angelika and Cavaldi were laid at his side.

"Don't worry, they're only sleeping. I needed to speak to you and this was the easiest way."

He turned and saw the woman who had brought Sasha back to the village standing at the other side of clearing.

"Where's Jake?!"

Will had suddenly realised that his brother was missing from the group.

"He's over here."

She stepped aside to reveal Jake laid on the ground at the over side of the clearing. Will went to his side; there was still no pulse or breath.

"How do I save him?"

"I don't know."

"I thought you knew everything."

"Only you know that."

"Know what?"

"How to save Jake. You've always been the one."

"But, I don't know what to do!"

"Then Jake will remain the servant of the Queen. He willing took her dagger in return for getting his hearts desire."

"His hearts desire?"

"Yes. The thing he would willing give up his place in this world for." She stood there for a moment, studying the young man in front of her. " You felt it when she took him didn't you? You have more of a connection to your brother than you thought." She smiled at Will. "He may have a chance, yet."

Will bent down to his brother's prone form and moved his clothes to expose his chest and the hilt of the dagger that lay there. He gingerly touched it. It's coldness only seemed to exaggerate the warm of Jake's flesh next to it.

"I need to get that out of him and then he will be all right!"

"Will, I don't think it will be that easy. Jake has a natural ability with magic and when he removed the dagger from your heart the mirror had just been shattered and you were still under the influence of the blood moon. That will not happen again."

"Then what will happen to him?"

"He will sleep until the Queen regains her power and then he will serve her, and do anything she asks."

"And if I take the dagger out?"

"He will probably die."

"Probably?"

"Well, usually the Queen would remove it from one servant to give it to the next. The old servant died after it was taken out. But Jake took the dagger after the Queen was shattered with the mirror, he did it to himself under her influence…"

"He did this to himself!"

"He must have. The Queen no longer has a physical form in this world. She could influence him, but she couldn't physically touch him. The spell worked because Jake believed it would, the dagger just provided a connection between them."

"So Jake would survive if he believed it?"

"Probably. But she was able to make him give up this world. Maybe there isn't enough here to bring him back."

"Can you wake them?" he looked across the clearing at Angelika and Cavaldi. "If I'm not enough to bring him back, then maybe the three of us are."

She smiled at him, glanced over to other side of the clearing and closed her eyes for a few seconds. As Will watched branches emerged from the forest and wrapped themselves around Angelika and Cavaldi and lifted them up. Cavaldi woke with a start and stumbled out of the branches embrace, nearly falling over in the process. Angelika meanwhile, merely glared at the branch as it released her.

She does not like magic, thought Will as they both approached him, Cavaldi exaggeratedly smoothing his clothes in an effort to regain his dignity. Will felt the sudden urge to laugh and he was glad that the Italian was there.

"What have you done to Jake?" Angelika demanded of the woman next to Will.

"Me, I have done nothing. I merely tried to dissuade him, but he was obsessed with them by then and felt he needed to find a way to destroy them to keep you all safe."

"Them?" Will's question was addressed to the woman.

"The dagger and the mirror fragment. I knew that he had found them in the forest…"

"What!" Will's anger was beginning to surface.

"I tried to convince him to give them to me and I would keep them safe for as long as I could. But he refused to listen to me. I did try to warn you."

"With vague statements and riddles!"

"I am here to guide you. You are the one who must save him!"

"Then we must think about Jake! Stop all this talking and do something to 'elp 'im!" Cavaldi voice cut across their argument and they all turned to face him. "What must we do?"

"You must remove the dagger from his heart and give it, along with the mirror fragment, to me. When the Queen's influence is removed from him, he may recover."

Will reached into Jake's bag that he had over his shoulder and removed a bundle from it. He unwrapped it, to reveal the mirror fragment. He felt a brief urge to look into it as it lay in his hand so he quickly passed it her, a shudder passing through him as it left his hand. She took it from him.

"You felt her power?"

"Yes." Will admitted.

"Then maybe Jake was right about needing to keep them away from you."

"He did this for me?"

"No intentionally. He was seeking a way to destroy them to keep everyone safe and the Queen used this to ensnare him."

Will closed his eyes and let his head fall forward. When was he going to stop causing his brother pain? He took a few deep breaths and then he looked the woman straight in the eyes.

"What must I do?"

"Remove the dagger with a steady continuous pull. Once you have started you must not stop."

Cavaldi took Jake in his arms and raised him up so that Will had a clear and unobstructed view of his chest. Jake's head lolled and came to rest against his shoulder. Angelika came close and took one of his hands. Then Will knelt at his brothers other side and moved aside his clothes until his could see the dagger. He glanced and them and saw the same look of hope and fear in their eyes. He gave them a weak smile.

"Jake, it's Will. Angelika and Cavaldi are here and I just wanted you know that you are loved and needed and we all want you back. Although we will have to have a chat about the fact that you don't seem to be safe on your own for more than five minutes."

"Will!"

"Angelika, you are not going to let me chastise him when he's awake again, are you?"

"Most certainly not."

"Then let me get it in now. And, anyway, you know I'm right, he isn't safe to be left on his own."

Angelika opened her mouth to respond. But a cough from Cavaldi brought them back to their senses. He took a deep breath and then a look of anguish crossed his face.

"I promised Sasha that I would save you – don't make me a liar!"

With that he took hold of the dagger and began to withdraw it from Jake's chest. At first nothing happened and the dagger rose cleanly out of his chest. Then, without warning, Jake's body arched upwards, his eyes came open and his mouth opened in a scream, although no sound came out.

"Hold on, Jake! Hold on! Only a few more seconds." Will whispered as he rose with his brother, continuing to pull out the dagger.

Jake's eyes moved to look at his brother and for a second they held each others gaze and then the dagger was out! Jake's body collapsed back into Cavaldi's arms, his eyes closed and he lay still. A single drop of blood escaped from the wound and then, as they watched, it healed itself, leaving no scar.

The woman stepped forward and took the dagger from Will's hand.

"Jake…Jake…Jacob" Will spoke gently as he touched Jake's cheek.

There was no response. His hand moved to his chest, but he felt no movement there nor was there any pulse. He looked at Angelika and Cavaldi and saw his anguish reflected in their eyes. Cavaldi moved and allowed Will to take Jake into his arms and for a few moments he just held him.

"I'm sorry that I failed you."

He took off his jacket, folded it and placed it under Jake's head as he laid his brother down. He stood up and walked towards the woman, who by now had returned to other side of the clearing and was stood watching the small group. Cavaldi rose and followed Will. Angelika stayed with Jake, unable, for the moment, to let go of his hand.

Will couldn't believe that, after all they had gone through, that Jake was gone. He felt hollow; there was nothing inside but the gap that had been left by Jake. He had been convinced that this would work. Jake had managed to bring him back so he would be able to do the same for him. But it would seem that his love for Jake wasn't enough or at least Jake didn't believe in it enough to conquer the Queen's magic. Where he went from here he didn't know. Without Jake there didn't seem much point in doing anything. After the events in Marbarden he had felt that things were looking up in their lives and they would have time to plan a future together, a future that they both wanted. He had dragged Jake away from the life he had loved and made him travel around Germany "helping" villages with their "evil spirit" problems and in the end it had cost three lives.

"Grimmy, what do we do now?"

"Don't ask me. Every decision I made has led to this."

"Will…this is no time for self pity. You've lost Jake. But that doesn't mean that you should give up. You 'ave to go on for 'im, you now 'ave make 'is death worth something otherwise everything you both went through is worthless."

"I have to tell Sasha that I couldn't save him. Angelika how you I do that?"

"You just do. I had to tell my sisters that our father was dead."

It brought tears to her eyes as she remembered Lily telling excitedly of how their father had returned. He had held them in his arms, smiled at them and they had kissed him and asked him where he had been. He had replied that he had a surprise for them and the last thing she could remember was the reassuring sound of his voice telling her to sleep. She had watched as her sister's eyes closed and her head fall to their fathers shoulder and then her own eyes were closing as she looked at his face. She had held them as they cried themselves to sleep, adding her own tears to theirs and then she had returned to the party. Jake, noticing that she seemed upset had come over and they had spent the rest of the night talking until she had given, the now rather unsteady on his feet, Jake a good night kiss on her doorstep and a few hours later she had opened the door to find Will standing there asking if she knew where Jake was.

Will turned to look at his brother's body resting peacefully on the ground. The least he owed him was to keep his head at the moment, grief could come later. He needed to get Jake back to Marbarden.

"Make sure that they are kept safe and away from the Queen."

He looked at the dagger and mirror fragment that the woman held in her hands.

"I will. But I didn't think you would give up so easily."

"What do you mean by that?!"

"Think of Sasha."

"I am thinking of Sasha! I have to tell her that Jake is dead!"

"Then you are a liar."

"WHAT!"

"Sasha had no pulse or breath, but she wasn't dead."

"She was under a spell!"

"And so is Jake."

Her smile broadened as she looked at the shocked faces around her.

"But…how? When I took the dagger out of Jake's chest it broke the Queen's spell. Didn't it?"

"It did. But I put a spell on Jake when I realised that he had taken the dagger and mirror fragment. I put him to sleep to talk to him, but you arrived before I got the chance. You broke the spell. But I cast another when Jake was in the forest on his way to Malsburg and as far as I'm aware no one has broken that spell. My powers are limited to the forest, outside of it, it is as though there is no spell at work, but as long as you are in the forest the spell is in effect."

Will thought back and realised that when he had found Jake in the forest he had never stayed awake longer than a few minutes and it had been when he got him back to Marbarden that he had recovered.

"But when I found Jake in the forest he was obviously asleep. He was breathing."

"He has been through a lot since then and I am not sure what effect the combination of magic has had on him."

"How do I break your spell?"

"How do you wake someone from an enchanted sleep?"

Will thought for a moment and then a smile spread across his face.

"I kissed Jake on the forehead when we brought him back to Marbarden and Jake broke the Queen's spell with a kiss! Angelika, would you care to kiss my brother?"

"It would a pleasure."

They all returned to Jake, Will raised him up in his arms and Angelika gently placed a kiss on his lips. Again, at first nothing happened, but then Jake's body shuddered and he took a ragged, gasping breath. It was followed by another and another. Cavaldi placed his hand of Jake's chest and felt the rhythmic beating of his heart.

"Warm and breathing." He said with a smile as he looked at Will and Angelika and then he laughed and soon the clearing was filled with laughter as Will held his now sleeping brother in his arms.

"Lets make sure that it stays that way!"

So they returned to Marbarden.


	18. Chapter 18

18

Will glanced up and looked around him. He smiled. Jake was stood next to him with what could only be described as a look of terror on his face. He looked like a rabbit did when it realised Angelika had taken in interest in it! But he had to admit that his brother scrubbed up well. In fact, he had never seen Jake look so smart. His clothes were clean and actually fitted him, he was freshly washed, with hair and beard trimmed and glasses clean, although they still hadn't managed to get the crack in the lens fixed. He looked positively handsome, in a younger brother, scholarly, magic believing, never really ever going to live in the real world kind of way. He just wished he didn't look like he was going to faint.

"Jake!" his brother jumped and Will barely contain his laughter, "You will be all right. You only have to remember three things, your name, her name and "I do". Just repeat what the priest tells you to."

His brother turned to look at him, obviously not amused.

"Jake, if you really think you can't go through with this I will do the brotherly thing and take your place."

"Will, that is not funny!"

Will had to take a pace back as his brother took a swipe at him. But at least the look of terror was gone from this face. He glanced at everyone else in the church. Cavaldi shot him an "is everything all right" look and he responded with a nod and a smile.

He looked back at Jake. He couldn't believe that this was actually happening, especially to Jake. But he had to admit that it was an equally unusual woman that he was going to marry but she had made his brother happy, so he was happy too. With Jake finally settled he could think about his future, what was he going to do?

The sound of the door opening brought him back to reality and he watched as Jake turned to look, his eyes following to see…

---

Will jerked awake as something crashed to the floor in the other room. He could hear Angelika's raised voice and one of her sisters apologising. He lifted his head from his arms that were resting on the table where he had slept. He stared blearily around the room and noted that is was morning. His head ached and his mouth was dry and he wished that he hadn't woken. His dream had been good and full of hope, which was the total opposite of what was now crashing back into his mind. There was no Jake, at least not a talking, walking Jake. Only a sleeping and still Jake, as he had been since they brought him back from the forest.

They had been so hopeful when they returned with him. Everyone in the village had welcomed them and he had even proudly brought Sasha to see him as he slept, telling her that he would wake up soon. But he hadn't woken. At first they thought that it might be the cut on his head, was it more serious than it looked? But according to the doctor that saw him, they told him Jake had fallen from his horse, it wasn't a serious injury. It healed, but Jake didn't wake.

Will's despair grew more and more with each passing day, then week, then month. Why wouldn't he wake? They had tried everything they could think of to wake him, but nothing seemed to work, and gradually the village came to accept Jake the way he was. The children, who had christened Jake their sleeping prince, came to see him every day and they would tell him all the news of the village. Will would watch over him, read to him from his book and talk him, as did Angelika and Cavaldi. He had even gone so far as to move them into a room at Angelika's house, so that Jake was never alone.

He had tried to leave, unable to stand it any more. Stating what did it matter if he was there or not, Jake was never going to wake and would not miss him. But he only got as far as the barn where they had found Jake. He had looked inside, memories came flooding back and he knew that he couldn't leave. He had to stay and protect his brother until he was well. So he returned, having been gone for only a day, and found Angelika waiting for him.

---

Jake had been asleep for a year and Will had got drunk in "celebration" of the anniversary. Angelika had left him alone to sleep it off, slumped over the table that Will had bought to be Jake's desk when he awoke. But now Lily had knocked the bowl off the table and Angelika open the door and looked in. Will looked at her with bleary eyes and she entered the room.

"How are you feeling?" she asked as she approached him.

"Fantastic," he replied, "What was the noise?"

"Lily knocked a bowl from the table. She didn't mean wake you."

"Is she all right?"

"Yes."

"Tell her that she didn't wake me."

Angelika looked at the man in front of her. She had seen him changed so much over the past year. He had gone from the cocky, confident conman who had arrive with his quiet brother to investigate the disappearance of her sisters and the other girls, to a man willing to sacrifice himself for his brother, and then willing to stand by him for as long as it took to find a way to heal him. Caring for Jake had brought out a more sensitive Will and she liked the man he had become.

"You should go and get cleaned up."

"Okay. Will you stay with him?" he glanced across the room at the bed that contained his brother, "I mean that a year and a day does seem to be a very magical length of time…" his voiced trailed off.

"So you believe in magic now?"

"It's been a year. How else can you explain it?" he left the room.

Angelika crossed to Jake and gently stroked his hair, "Wake up soon, please."

She took a seat in the chair that was next to the bed and looked at the man who had saved her with his kiss, his face relaxed and tranquil in sleep. When she had opened her eyes to Jake's smiling face she had thought that the curse on her family had been lifted. But that had been a false hope and the curse had returned, only now it was fixed upon the brothers as well. Proof of that lay on the bed in front of her, her kiss hadn't been enough to wake him.

She hadn't had time to think about her feelings for Jake when they had found him in the barn, there was only the aching grief that the young man who had saved her and her sisters was dead and then the relief and joy at the results of her kiss. But over the past months she had had time and, as she watched over him, she realised how much she missed his smile, the joy she had seen in his face as he read his stories to the villagers at the party and his concern for her when she had returned from telling her sisters that their father was dead. He had talked and danced with her all night, despite the fact that he more than a little the worse for ware, just to try to raise her spirits and more than once she had wondered what might have happened had they not parted on the her door step that night. Did she love him? Well, when he woke she was willing to see if they could make their relationship work.

A noise from kitchen made her turn. It couldn't be her sisters, she had shooed them from the house when they had woken Will. She left Jake to find out what it was.

---

Will turned the wheel and drew up the bucket from the well. He then poured the contents over his head, coughing and spluttering as he shook the water from his hair and then raked his fingers through his it.

"Does that make you feel better, Grimmy?"

Will glanced at the Italian has he walked towards him.

"Not really, but it certainly wakes you up!"

"How is 'e?"

"Still sleeping. He has finally become a character out of his stories, he would be proud." The bitterness was evident in his voice.

"Do not worry. Jake will wake when he is ready. He knows those that love him are waiting."

"And when will that be?"

"When he is ready."

Will walked off. Why was no one concerned about Jake any more? They all seemed to have accepted that he would stay as he was. He couldn't do that. There had to be something more that could be done. He had looked through all of Jake's books and even written to the university – but he had had to be so vague that it had been virtually useless.

Will walked back towards the house. He entered to find it quiet. As he passed the kitchen he glanced in and saw Angelika. He approached to discover her sleeping at the kitchen table, her head resting on her arms. Will felt a momentary flare of anger at her, she had left Jake alone. But he knew he couldn't be mad at her. She missed Jake as much as he did. She had admitted that she and Jake had kissed and Will would have looked forward to seeing if their budding romance progressed any further. So he left her and went back to Jake.

He sat in the chair by his bed and studied the sleeping form of his brother. Jake hadn't aged, nor had his hair or beard grown. It was as if time had stopped for Jake when he fell asleep.

"Hello Jake," he said quietly to his brother, "how are you feeling today? So, you've reached a year and a day asleep, don't you think that's enough?" He sighed. "Why can't I wake you? What must I do?"

He glanced around the room and spotted Jake's glasses, on top of his book, on the table beside the bed. He reached for them and placed them on his brother's face.

"I miss you, Jake, I love you and I need my little brother back." There. He had said it, "You did so much here. You had the power to break the spell and when I saw what you had done I was so proud of you."

He closed his eyes and took a breath before he continued.

" You didn't kill her, Jake. What happened to Lotte wasn't your fault you were tricked. We all knew that she was dying and that it was too late for any help for her, but we didn't want to face it. I took my anger out on you and that was wrong of me. I forgive you, even though there is nothing that you need to be forgiven for. I should have told you that years ago, but I knew that your guilt was the only thing that kept you with me and my plans wouldn't work without you. When you come back you can do anything you want, even if it means that we part. Please forgive me for all that I have done to you in the past. I love you, little brother."

He leant forward and placed a gently kiss on his brothers forehead, he wasn't aware that he was crying until he saw the tears that had fallen onto Jake's face.

He went and stood staring out of the window. He could see the villagers going about the their lives in the world outside. Sasha passed by and waved at him and he gave her a smile and a bird took off from the roof. There was a world out there, and it was carrying on and maybe there was a life for him in that world, after all. One that didn't have to revolve around Jake as it had for the past year. It didn't mean that he would forget Jake, just find something that meant he didn't dwell on Jake's condition. After all, he was the one who had come up with their "weapons" and "armour". He had always been the more practical one, Jake the dreamer. He wondered what he was dreaming now? Their past hadn't always been bad; there were some good memories…

---

Father had been on a business trip to Frankfurt and was due back today and they were all excited. Will was sat by the fire quietly laughing at Jake who had his nose pressed against the window as he watched everyone who passed by.

"That won't make him come any faster, you know."

"But I want him here so I can show him."

"I think he will notice. I mean you really can't miss the fact that you have two pieces of glass attached to your face with wire."

Jake's face fell.

"Will! Stop teasing your brother! Come here and set the table." Their mother's voice came from the kitchen.

"But that's Lotte chore!"

"Not today," Will reluctantly went to answer his mother's summons, casting a glance at Jake.

"Idiot!"

"Moron!" responded Jake, a smile back on his face.

Lotte went to join her brother and they both watched the street for the first view of their father.

He arrived half an hour later, Lotte and Jake in a race to be the first to get to the door. Their mother came through to greet her husband with a kiss and then helped him remove his heavy travelling coat.

"Well," he said as he studied his youngest son's face, "they certainly make you the most intelligent looking member of the family, which of course you are! I hope you are taking good care of them?"

"I am Papa, I promise."

"He never takes them off," added Will, "he even sleeps in them!"

After they had finished their meal father retrieved his travelling bag and went to his chair by the fire and the family gathered around him.

"It would seem," he said as he looked in his bag, "that a number of items have made their way into my bag that I'm not entirely sure what to do with. Can anyone think what I could do with them?"

"You could give them to us?" Suggested Will.

Father always brought back presents from trips…


	19. Chapter 19

19

"Will, are you all right? Wake up, please!"

Jake's voice brought him back from his memories and he opened his eyes to see his little brother standing over him, a concerned look on his face. Will smiled; even in his dreams Jake was concerned about him.

"It's all right, Jake. I'm awake. What's wrong?"

Will was going to enjoy every moment of this dream.

"I woke up and found everyone else asleep. I tried to wake you, but I couldn't. I was scared that something had happened to you. Another spell."

He looked so afraid.

"Jake, you don't have to be afraid. Everything is okay. Here," he extended his hand to Jake. He was sat on the floor by the window, where he had apparently been sleeping, "give me a hand up and we'll sort all this out."

Jake took his hand and pulled him to his feet. With the touch an almost electric shock went through him. Jake's hand was warm and, as he pulled Will to his feet and they stood facing each other, came the realisation that this wasn't a dream. He was awake, and so was Jake. All he could do was stand there and stare at his brother. He seemed to see everything in minute detail. He could see the twitches in the muscles of Jake's face as he, in his turn, regarded him with growing concern and the smile that had been on his face slowing collapsed into a look of fear.

"Will, what's wrong? What have I done! "

Jake was frantic. Will raised his hand and touched his brother face, and felt his beard and the warmth of the skin beneath.

"Are you really awake?" He could feel tears sting the back of his eyes.

"Yes."

Will pulled Jake into his arms and held him there and Jake, after a moment's hesitation, wrapped his arms around him.

Jake pulled himself from their embrace and gave Will a confused look. His brother was acting like he hadn't seen him in months and he had only been asleep for a few hours.

"Will, what's been going on? The last thing I can remember is …"

Jake lapsed into silence as he began to realise just how confused his memories were. The Queen was there, as was her dagger and the mirror, but with the events of the past few days that was understandable, along with Will, Angelika, Cavaldi, a strange woman in the forest and Pepper, a feeling that there was something very important that he had to do followed a feeling of total peace that took everything away…and then there was Lotte … Lotte, but not the sick and dying Lotte of his past, but a well, strong and caring Lotte who loved him and he had saved. He looked at Will, uncertain of what to tell him, knowing that he wouldn't believe what Jake's memories were telling him. He needed time to think things through and so he remained quiet.

"Jake, what is the last thing you can remember?"

Jake's silence was worrying his brother. After all what effect would sleeping for over a year have on him? What would he remember? Would he be able to tell them what had happened to him before they found him in barn with the dagger in his chest?

"I'm not really sure Will. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry. I'm sure it will all make sense in time."

Will watched as Jake glanced around the room. He saw confusion in his brother's eye again.

"Will, where are we? This isn't the house the villagers are letting us use."

"No. It's Angelika's. She's been letting you sleep here."

"Oh No!" Jake groaned, putting his head into his hands.

Will took a concerned step towards his brother.

"Please, Will, tell me that I didn't pass out on her doorstep last night? Tell me she didn't have to come and fetch you to put me to bed!"

It was at that moment that Will realised that Jake had no idea how much time had passed whilst he had slept.

"No, Jake. You didn't pass out on her doorstep."

A look of relief crossed his brother's face. But then…

"Will, what am I doing here, then?"

"Jake," Will wasn't really sure how he was going to put this, "how long do you think you've been asleep?"

"What?!" His brother question made no sense.

"How long do you think you have been asleep?"

"A few hours?" Surely it couldn't be anymore than that.

"It's been a little bit longer than that, Jake."

"How long?"

There wasn't an easy way to say this, so he just said it

"It's been over a year, Jake. We found you in a barn, close to Malsburg, you had the Queen's dagger in your heart."

Will's words brought back more of Jake's memories and he remembered the Queen and her offer of his heart's desire. The thought of what he had done made him feel sick. How could he look his brother in the face, knowing the sacrifice that Will had made in the tower, when he had given in to the Queen had given so readily. He turned away from Will.

"It all right, Jake. You're safe here."

There was a sudden gasp from the door and Jake turned to Angelika standing there. They stood there and looked at each other. Jake knew that they had shared a kiss. But if what Will as saying was true then that had been over a year ago, even if to him it was only yesterday. His love for her was still fresh and real, but she had had a year, and a year with his brother, and given the choice, women chose Will. They always had done, so why should Angelika be any different? She had kissed Will before him when they had returned from the forest, so he would just have to content with friendship. He smiled at her.

"Hello, Angelika. Thank you for letting me stay. I hope my snoring didn't disturb you?"

She crossed the room and took him in her arms. After a few moments she pulled away and took his face in her hands. She was blinking away tears. Tears for him?

"You didn't snore. But you were away too long."

"I'm sorry. I thought I had something to do, but I think I got a little lost. I love you."

"I know."

She took her into her arms again. Maybe she did love him after all? Will smiled at them both. It would seem that their romance might come to something after all.

"What do we do now?" Will's question was put to both Jake and Angelika, "We have to let everyone know that you are awake. But do you think you are up to it, little brother?"

"I think I am. But where do we start?"

"Cavaldi!" Will and Angelika replied in unison.

And so the went to the Italian's house and knocked on the door. Cavaldi answered and looked concerned to see Will and Angelika at his door.

"Grimmy! What has 'appened? It is Jacob?"

"Yes, you could definitely say that!" replied Will with one of his best grins.

"Hello, Cavaldi," said Jake and they moved aside to that he could see him.

"Caro storyboy! You are awake!" Cavaldi grabbed Jake in a bear hug and rapidly descended into a stream of unintelligible Italian, "Come, come we must tell everyone. We must celebrate!"

Cavaldi was a good as his word and Jake almost disappeared beneath the embraces and good wishes of people. He went bright red and Will suspected that if Angelika had not taken his hand he would have simply slipped away to hide in his book. He smiled at the new found intimacy of the two of them and the looks he got from others assured him that he was not the only one who had noticed.

The children welcomed Jake back in their own special way and he spent time with each of them, reassuring them that he was all right. Even so, every time that Will looked for his brother there was one or more of them were at his side, watching him, guarding him, making sure that he didn't disappear again. Will stood quietly watching all this, letting his brother have his moment, one that he had most definitely earned, when he became aware of someone standing next to him. It was Sasha, and as he crouched down beside her she gave him a kiss.

"What was that for?"

He could feel himself blushing slightly; he had had many kisses in his time but never one given with such sincerity.

"Because you kept your promise."

"I would never break a promise to you, fair lady."

He laughed as she ran back to the crowd that still surrounded Jake. As he watched the crowd he noticed changes in his brother. Jake was relaxed and more unselfconscious than he had ever seen him, gone was the nervousness and introversion that had come to be the norm of their recent past.

"I thought you always had be the centre of attention?"

Jake had noticed that his brother had not rejoined the villagers with Sasha and he and Angelika had come out to him.

"I do, little brother, but this is all part of my plan."

"And what plan might that be?" asked Angelika.

"To be the first the dance with you, of course!"

He swept Angelika away, leaving a laughing Jake behind. Suddenly there was music in the air and the village of Marbarden began a celebration that would last long into the night.

---

"So, how did you get the cut on your head?" Will asked his brother as they sat in Cavaldi's house at the end of a good but rather exhausting day and they were all, including Jake, a little the worse for it all.

Jake moved a hand up to his forehead and felt not a healing cut but a thin scare. Why it surprised him he wasn't sure. Here was the proof, if he needed any that he had slept as long as Will had said. His dream, for that was what it was, surely, had seemed to last for mere hours. But if it was only dream, then where did the scar come from? He knew of only one person who could tell him, but she seemed as much a part of the dream as the rest of it.

"You did," replied Jake, with a smile on his face, "you thought that I had hurt Lotte…"

"But Jake, Lotte is…"

Jake looked at Will and could see concern and fear in his eyes, but no blame. That had gone, finally after all these years there was no blame in Will's eyes. He remembered hearing Will speaking to him before he woke up, he had assumed that this was part of his dream, but it seemed that those words had been real. He had forgiven him, did love and need him, and if that was real then so was the rest of the dream and somewhere Lotte was alive!

"…dead. Yes, Will, I know that and I killed her. But only in this world…" He glanced at the concerned looks on all the faces around him and gave a small laugh, "it's all right, I haven't gone mad…yet."

And he proceeded to tell the all what had happened to him.

"I'm sorry Will, that I was weak and gave into the Queen so easily. But you always were the stronger one."

"No Jake. You weren't weak, just too tired to fight anymore. After all we have been through I would think it would be easy to tell which one of us is the stronger. Here," he passed Jake his now rather batter book, "should you write some of this down, it seems to me that you have the makings of a good story, there."

Jake was surprised that he had hadn't thought about his book before now, it had become second nature to him to check that he always had it with him. He had been willing to risk his life to save the book from the fire and it had taken Will's pulling him away to stop him. But today had been filled with other things and it hadn't crossed his mind until Will spoke. He held it lovingly in his hands. Despite all the book had been through it had survived more or less in one piece. The cover was scorched from the fire and the edges of some of the pages had been burnt, but the actual words, the stories, were intact and legible and the empty pages were still there waiting to be filled.

"Thank you," he said to Cavaldi, "thank you for saving my book."

"It was my pleasure, caro storyboy."

"It's like us…"

"What?"

Will looked at Jake. He was starting to sag a little in his chair and his face had a relaxed expression on it. Definitely a little too much ale had been drunk.

"The book is like us. It's been through a lot but…but… it's still there…"

Jake's voice faded and as they watched his head dropped forward and he fell asleep.

"Still can't hold his ale! Cavaldi, can you give a hand with him?"


	20. Chapter 20

20

Jake woke as the early morning sunlight hit him full in the face. He tried turning over and going back to sleep but the hangover that was lurking at back on his mind and threatening to come to the front of it wouldn't let him. He reached out to the table at the side of the bed and searched until he found his glasses. He put them on and blinked a couple of times to get his vision clear. He raised himself up and discovered that he was back in the house that the villagers were letting them use, though the fact that they had actually been using it for over a year now probably meant that they had taken up residency there – it was their home? He also discovered that he was fully clothed and, as he couldn't remember how he got there, it was reasonable to assume that Will must have put him to bed last night, at least he hoped it was last night. He looked across the room. Will was sprawled on his bed, still fast asleep and snoring gently. Careful not wake him Jake got up, crossed to his "desk", took his book and then returned to his bed.

He slowly flicked through the last few entries, the final one written over a year ago when he had slipped away from the party, eager to get the events of the previous few hours recorded. He could still remember writing them, the awe that he had felt at all that happened in the forest, the despair of what he had done to Will, the incredulity that it was him that had saved them all and the hope for the future that he had felt as they reunited the children with their parents. But that had dissolved into fear for the safety of them all at some point and he had found himself heading back into the forest. He couldn't believe that he had last written in his book over a year ago and he also couldn't believe that Will had stayed at his side all that time. Surely he must have had an opportunity to leave so why hadn't he taken it? After all, with him sleeping, his knowledge of the legends of the towns and villages around wasn't there and Will wouldn't be able to continue fighting their witches and trolls, so why hadn't he just left and got on with his life? Will could turn his hand to just about anything and there must have been something else he could have done. He glanced at his still sleeping brother. So why had he stayed?

---

Reading his book hadn't done anything to ease the impending hangover so he had decided to try some fresh air instead. He got his boots, left his book on the bed, and quietly let himself out of the house, leaving Will to his dreams. It was early and the no one else was up yet so he had the village to himself as he walked, taking in all the small changes that he hadn't noticed yesterday. The well had a new bucket and the house at the back of the village had finally been completed. He was enjoying the quiet, for it gave him a chance to think. He still couldn't believe that he had slept for a year. But the cut on his forehead had healed, even though nothing else about him seemed to have changed. He smiled, he was the one who believed in magic, and here he was doubting what was obviously some form of magic. He was the one that had used the axe to make the trees move, and had been the tower and witnessed what had happened there, so how could he doubt it? He finally had proof that even Will couldn't ignore, him. Suddenly he felt a little faint and he sat on the edge of the well and took a few deep breaths to calm himself. He had done it! He had finally done what he had always wanted to do. He had proved that magic was real!

He reached into the pocket of his trousers and pulled out a small drawstring bag. He emptied the contents into the palm of his hand – the beans. Those tiny, insignificant little seeds that had caused so much pain. That he had kept all these years to remind him of what he had done. What his belief in magic had done. And now that belief had been proved right. So where did he go now? How many of the other stories that he had written in his book were also true? Should he go and find out, and would Will come with him? Will had spoken about using their new found skills in some scheme he had worked out as they were walking towards the party, but had Will have changed his mind whilst he was sleeping? But did he even want to go? Were there things in Marbarden that were more important to him now than the stories, or more precisely someone? It was a choice; he decided that he was looking forward to making, although it would probably take him a very long time, a long leisurely time with as much of it spent in Angelika's presence as he could manage. He put the beans back into their bag and returned it his pocket. They were a part of him that he couldn't deny. They had shaped his past, but that didn't mean that they had to shape his future. He saw that now. His future was for him to decide and it was a future that would contain Will and Angelika if he had any say in it. He had found peace with himself, a better peace than that which the Queen had given him. But there were still some things that he needed to sort out.

---

"How are you doing, boy?" Jake asked the horse as he stroked it. Pepper nuzzled against him, looking a treats and Jake produced an apple, which the horse readily ate. "You know what happened, don't you. You know if it real or just a dream she put in my head."

Jake stared to brush the horse, as he concentrated on his work he didn't notice the raven that flew in and gently settled on one of the roof beams. He didn't notice his brother either as he entered the stables or stood watching him as he worked, keeping up a quiet conversation with the horse.

Will smiled, it seemed that nothing really changed with Jake, and he was glad of that.

"Good morning," he called and watched as Jake jumped slightly, "I see that you managed to sleep for less than a year this time. How's the hangover?"

"Getting better, thanks. Erm…Will, about last night. Is there anything I need to know?"

"Well, let me think. You did compare us to your book, which seeing as I know what's in that book I don't think was much of a compliment…"

"That wasn't what I meant." Jake whispered to Pepper. It looked like things might not have changed with Will after all.

"…and then you ravished Angelika."

"What!"

"Well, that was what Cavaldi and I assume that you were doing in your sleep. By the time we got you back to your bed were dreaming and you did mention her name a number of times during your mumblings."

Will had felt a moment of panic when he had woken to find Jake's bed empty that hadn't totally vanished until he found Jake in the stables. But there had also been a certain amount of relief that Jake had actually woken. Added to the fact that Jake had a few years worth of insults and jibes and general teasing of the younger brother coming to him, he had decided to start now. He knew exactly what Jake had meant about the book, but there was no way he was going to let him know that. He gave Jake his best "You are so easily taken in, little brother" looked and watched as Jake gave him an exasperated sigh. He lent against the door to Pepper's stall and watched as his brother continued to brush the horse.

"Why did you stay?"

"What?" The question caught Will off guard.

"I was asleep for a year, why did you stay?"

When they had been travelling Will had made sure they never stayed anywhere very long. Of course, after they had defeated the local witch or demon they couldn't really stay around. It was just a case of attend the celebration, with free drinks, receive the collection for their expenses and to meet up with Hidlick and Bunst before going on to their next village to offer their services. But still, Will had more than once moved them on because he said he was bored with where they were.

"Well, Jake," Jake noticed that Will looked slightly embarrassed and waited patiently for him to continue, "I just had to. I had to stay to protect you, until you got better."

"Protect me?"

"Yes, Jake, you may not have noticed, but you do have a tendency to live in a world inhabited by magic and folklore."

"You mean like the Thuringian Queen?"

"That was an exception. Jake, you are the only family I have left and I couldn't just leave you. You've never been able to live in the real world, someone would have conned you out of everything you had if I hadn't been there."

"So instead you dragged me around the country, battling witches we created and conning villages out of their money?"

"Because it kept us together. I didn't know what else to do." Will still remembered Jake as the child full of dreams and possibilities. "When I found you at the university I didn't want to you stay there, with all those books, and let your dreams die."

"Will, I was happy there. Being a scholar, it was what I was meant to be."

"No it's not. You were meant to be telling your stories to people. I see the reactions of people as you read your stories to them, Jake. You scare them and they love it. You have to admit the stories you wrote since were have been travelling are better than the one you wrote when you were a scholar. Take Aschenputtel, Cavaldi loves that one!"

Jake smiled as he remembered the rendition of the story given by Latorc in Marbarden and how he had loved to hear his words spoken, even if both he and Will had been in fear of their lives at the time, and dressed in aprons and bonnets.

"You almost sound like you care for me, after all."

"I do Jake. You are my little brother and I have always cared for you. We may not always seen eye to eye and I was angry with you for what you did. But I have never wanted anything to happen to you."

"But I thought you hated me, as much as I have hated myself for what I did." He looked at his older brother.

"No Jake, I was angry with you. Angry with myself for not being there when you all needed me and leaving you to be the one who had to go for the doctor when it should have been me. But I was too afraid to be there, too afraid that Lotte was going to die, just as Papa had done. He died and left me in charge of you all, and I wasn't old enough to do that. So I stayed away when I should have been there. We will never know if the doctor could have saved Lotte and it was easier to blame you, when I should have blamed myself. And I used your guilt to get you to come with me, and stay where I could be sure that you were safe. Please forgive me?"

"Forgive you? What is there to forgive you for?"

Will was his big brother, the one he had looked up to and wanted to be like when he was younger and whose anger he had taken as his punishment for what he had done all these years.

"For not saying any of this earlier and letting you feel like you did for all those years."

"Okay, then. I forgive you."

They stood there and looked at each other, both knowing that something between them had just changed but not knowing quite what they should do next.

"So have the two of you have learned something for all this, then?" Her voice made them both jump.

Jake smiled; it felt like he was greeting an old friend. Will simply stared at her, with a look of suspicion.

"So you finally decided to wake up. I was beginning to think that he was never going work everything out."

"What was I supposed to work out?!"

Will was getting very tired of the riddles.

"You worked it out, it really doesn't matter if you know what you did, you did it, and that's what counts.

Jake could see that his brother was going to continue with the argument and decided to change the subject.

"Was it real?"

"I don't know, magic has it's own way of doing things. Did she look how you expected her to look?"

"Yes, exactly."

Did that mean that it was all a dream?

"Your hearts desire has always been obvious, you're a bit of an open book on that one." She smiled at her bad joke; "You may have got the cut when you fell from your horse, but then again, who knows? You took her dagger into your heart and after that you were ruled by magic, but whether you had a dream or were transported to a different version of this world? You must decide. But for my part I would have thought that both of you have seen enough to convince you that anything is possible."

"WHO ARE YOU?" Will wanted some answers.

"Will, she's the servant of the Queen. The one who gathered the villagers spells, including the one for eternal life."

"And you think we can trust her?"

Both she and Jake simply stared at him.

"Okay, the Queen was in the tower. Where had you been for the last few centuries?"

"Right here. When the Queen realised that she had been tricked and the spell wouldn't give her what she wanted she blamed me and trapped me in the forest."

"Then why are no stories of a strange woman in the forest?"

"Oh, there have been stories. I wasn't able to take human form until Jake broke the mirror, but I did help when I could."

"Doing what?"

"Mainly directions."

"YOU WERE GRANDMOTHER TOAD!"

A smile spread across Jake's face as he put everything together. Will merely looked shocked.

"Thanks for the kiss, Will and, yes, you did it just the way I liked it!"

"I am never kissing another amphibian in my life."

"Nice to know your going to be faithful. Jake, if you need me you know where to find me."

She walked towards the door of the stables, disappearing, quite literally, as she passed through the doorway.

"You are never to go near her again, Jake."

"All right." replied Jake as they walked back towards Angelika's house, already planning his next trip into the forest, his head full of questions that he wanted to ask her.


	21. Chapter 21

21

She entered the tavern; she was late and therefore probably in trouble. She called her apologies as she removed her shawl and went to collect some tankards that hadn't been moved from the night before. From the corner of her eye she saw that there was someone sat by the window. That wasn't right, the tavern wasn't open and breakfast was finished for those guests that had stayed the night. She turned towards the someone, who turned out to be a man with a book.

"I'm sorry sir, you will have to leave. I'm afraid that the tavern isn't open yet."

As she looked at the man, he seemed vaguely familiar, but she didn't know where she had seen him before. He turned towards her.

"Jake!"

Her face broke into a smile and she went towards him and took him in her arms. It had been well over a year since he had sat there, and despite all that had been said to her by the tavern owner and the staff she had never quite given up on him or his promise to return with her story.

"And he says that I'm the one who attracts the women!"

She turned and saw his brother, Will? standing by the fireplace.

"You found him! It's been so long, I thought that you weren't going to return.

"Lucky for you, my brother is one who keeps his promises."

"Will, you know each other?"

"He came here, looking for you over a year ago and I told him about your promise."

Jake had never told Will why he wanted to come to the tavern, he thought that he would think it was stupid to keep a promise like that. But now it turned out that Will had know about it all along. Will approached them at the table and removed something from his pocket.

"Here you are, fair lady. The money we owe you."

He placed a bag on the table; Kristina lifted it and felt the coins inside.

"And here is the story I promised you."

Jake reached into his bag and withdrew a large, but slim package. It had her name on the front and was sealed. He handed it to her.

"Thank you."

She stared at the package. She had the feeling that it contained something special.

"And what is going on here then?" They all turned to see the tavern owner standing behind the bar, "I only let the two of you in because you said it was an emergency."

"It was," replied Will "You have no idea what 's it like when Jake needs to keep a promise."

Kristine let out a laugh, which was quickly silenced by a look from the tavern owner.

"Don't worry, my brother and I are leaving. Good day, Kristina and I hope that we will see you again."

Jake moved to join his brother and they started to walk toward the door.

"I hope he paid the money he owed."

He had finally recognised the one with the glasses as the one who had conned Kristina with the promise of a story.

"He did." She replied, showing him the bag of money.

"And what's in there?" he said indicating the parcel that she had in her hands.

"The story." Replied the younger of the two men.

"The story! What's it about?"

"A man who rescues a princess from a tower where she had been imprisoned by an evil queen who is a witch."

"Not base on reality then?" whispered Will to his brother.

"Rescuing people from witches! Who do you think you are, the Brothers Grimm?"

"And what would you do if you had the Brothers Grimm here?" asked the blond man.

"Report them to the French, of course. They are wanted men."

"As far as I am aware the French have been looking for them for over a year. What make you think that they are still around here?"

"I don't think they are. The stories I've heard about them say that they were frauds, anyway, conning people out of their savings. Who would help them?"

"I don't really know. But I fear that my brother and I have taken up too much of your valuable time. Jake, we should be going."

They both walked out of the tavern. The owner crossed to the door and watched as they went to horses tied up across the street.

"Kristina, get back to work. Do I pay to stand around and stare?"

"No sir."

Kristina turned and walked behind the bar, depositing the money in the cashbox, placing the parcel behind the bar and returned to clearing the last of the tankards from the table. As soon as the bar owner had returned to the kitchen she removed the parcel, it was sealed with a large blob of red wax with what looked like a G stamped in it. She gently slit the seal. She removed the sheets of paper it contained and held them in her hands. There must have been ten of them, each crammed with neat hand written text on both sides. She had been lucky, as a child her mother had been on good terms with the local schoolmaster, and he had taught her and her brothers and sisters to read. She glanced slowly through the pages; he eyes alighting on a word here and there. There had been a brief note attached to the first page, signed by Jake and as he turned the final page over she saw at the bottom of the page a more formal note of authorship. She gasped as she read it; "Jacob Grimm" and she stared at the door that they had just left through.

"Our course," she said to no one in particular, "Will and Jake… Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm!"

She held the pages close and gave a small-excited laugh. Here was something she could treasure! She had heard stories about them and from what she had seen of the brothers she was sure they were the heroes that they said they were and to hell with the stories of their being frauds. They were just circulated by the French to get people to tell them where they were!

---

"Will, Kristina said that you had met her while you were searching for me? What happened?"

Although Jake had told Will about what had happened to him. Will had never said what had happened whilst they were looking for him. Jake had assumed that that they had just followed his trail and found him in the barn; to be honest he hadn't really got that far. But now he thought that there might be something more to it.

Will swung himself into the saddle, turned and looked back at his brother and smiled. He planned to tell Jake about what had happened during his search for him, but not today. That tale deserved it's own time and place.

"Jake, will you hurry up! I promised Angelika we would be back for noon."

Will turned his horse and started towards the town gates, well aware that Jake wasn't even in the saddle yet.

"Will, wait for me! What happened? Why wont you tell me!"

Will turned to see his brother struggling, his bag having got caught on the saddle.

"Jake, why must you always be lagging behind?"

He turned back and urged his horse on. Behind him he could hear Jake still struggling to catch him up.


End file.
